The Legend of Uzumaki Naruta
by TD Master
Summary: What if Naruto was born a girl?
1. Chapter 1: And So It Starts

**Summary:** The legend of Naruto, if he'd been born a girl.

**Disclaimer:** Naruto and related concepts are owned and created by Masashi Kishimoto.

**Author's notes:**

Through some twists, and some Naruto fanfic reading, the wonder popped in my head, what would Naruto be like if the boy had actually been born a girl? Annoyingly the idea grew into story, and now my traitorous brain forced me to write it down.

For everyone waiting for the next Buffy Z episode that was already disappointed by the last new project I took up with Joshua, the Bleached crossover, I apologize, but from now on, there's a fourth story that will get written. Buffy Z, ½ Blessing ½ curse, BLEACHed and Naruta will be be the aimed for order, but I promise nothing (especially since I like this one so much right now.)

Anyway, I hope everyone likes this story enough they don't mind to much.

Have fun reading!

**The Legend of Uzumaki Naruta**

**Book 1: The Legend Begins**

by 3D Master

_Prologue_

A long time ago a demon fox appeared. It had nine tails and could flatten mountains and cause tidal waves with but one wave of one of them. When it came to attack Konoha, the Hidden Village of the Leaf, the shinobi went to confront it, to try and stop it. None stood a chance until a hero arrived. He was known as the Fourth Hokage, and he defeated the Nine-Tailed Fox, giving his life to defend the village . . .

But not even he could kill such a monster, he could only seal it away inside a new born baby . . . girl . . .

_Chapter 1: And So It Starts . . ._

"Naruta!" the ANBU guys screamed trying to catch the slippery girl. The girl bounced from roof to roof of the village, which was a strange mix of feudal Japan and a modern day city, electricity wires running around through it. "How could you do this!?"

"What!? They looked so drab, they needed some rouge, lipstick and eye shadow! Don't they look much better now!?" the twelve-year-old girl in question yelled back at them. Behind the girl and her impromptu entourage, four large male heads were visible hacked out on a stone mountain. The one to the left having a regal face, with long mains of hair. The second had an unruly bunch of hair. The third looked foreboding, with an angular face and sharp pointed beard on its chin. The fourth was a face that would have girls go gaga over. And all four of them were made up like cute girls, if drag queens were cute girls.

The girl wore blue sandals, an orange skirt made out of two flaps that kept her legs all but uncovered, and more importantly free to do all the fighting the kunoichi - girl-ninja - in training needed to do. Underneath that was a blue skintight thigh-length shorts, and finally an orange and blue jacket from which she had cut the sleeves, midriff and collar a long time ago, leaving a plunging v-shaped collar. A sleeveless shirt matching the shorts and equally tight underneath the small jacket kept her both decent and left her otherwise bare midriff some protection. The shirt stopped just above her bellybutton, flowing around her waist, it, as well as the rest, accentuating whatever little curves the just-started-to-develop body had, which included barely visible modest humps on her chest, that promised to grow into a respectable set of breasts in the following year or two. A girl wouldn't be a girl if she didn't accessorize, black bracelets adorned her wrists, and upper arms - small non-painted half-circles adorned the bracelets, sunlight gleaming off of the silvery nobs. In front of her shins were protectors from the same black material, fastened around her ankle and just underneath her knee with thin metal bands. The girl had blond hair which she had done in two pony tails that hung along the side of her head curving from its top, red ribbons wrapped around the base of the tails. Perhaps oddly, she had three cute dimples in her cheeks that somewhat resembled whiskers.

The girl's escape didn't seem to be going too well, as the bucket she was still carrying as she bound from roof, to balcony, to the street, and often just as easily back up again, made an awful lot of noise. Of course, she wasn't planning on getting away too easily to begin with, for she had noticed one new recruit in pursuit.

"UZUMAKI NARUTA! I HAVE YOU NOW!" the guy in question yelled, landing just in front of her.

Instantly the girl came to a stand still, her left leg shyly joining her right, her arms clasped behind her back along with the bucket. Her head went down giving all the impression of a sweet girl that was very sorry. Carefully she turned her head up, leveling her most terrifying weapon on him - of course, the guy being new, didn't know that yet. Pained, clear-blue, puppy-dog eyes, glistening just a bit with accumulating moisture looked in the young man's eyes - he never stood a chance. The sweet cute girl looked so vulnerable, as she said, oh so pained, "G-gomen, ANBU-san. Wh-why are you m-meanies chasing me?"

His heart broke, and he felt like the biggest bastard on the planet screaming and yelling all those evil things at such a sweet an innocent girl. Smiling like a guy caught stealing candy, his right hand behind his head, he said, "G-gomen, Naruta-chan, b-but you really can't paint the Hokage mon- oough!" That was when Naruta's right foot lodged itself squarely between his legs, and pain flared through his entire body. The ANBU sank to his knees now desperately cradling his bruised balls that might never gave him offspring if he didn't get them to a medic-nin soon. He looked into the face that looked far too angelic for the girl that had just done that to him.

"And another one bites the dust," Naruta said sweetly, and smiling just as lovely. Her right index finger poked the guy's forehead and he toppled over backward and slightly to Naruta's left. "Far too easy," she singsonged as she hopped gracefully over the fallen member of a ninja village's most ruthless and feared organization, dropping the now useless bucket to the ground. She turned right, entering a street, giggling a sweet giggle that was threatening to turn into a belly laugh. She was just about to go back into overdrive when a man appeared from a left side street.

"Naruta!" the simple teacher with a scar across his nose and a fluffy pony tail on the top of his head yelled.

Naruta instantly froze, "I-Iruka-sensei." The teacher had long since gotten immune to smiles and puppy-eyes of sweet-looking female students, hers in particular, and Naruta was far more intimately familiar with that fact as she wanted to be.

And Iruka yelled again, "What the hell do you think you're doing out here when you should be in class!"

--

The wooden floor of the classroom actually felt cold to her butt. Tied up she sat there, getting a lecture from Iruka-sensei that she hardly paid attention to. She grunted in disagreement and annoyance at him when he was done, turning her head away.

"Alright then, class! Today we'll do a surprise re-examination of the Transformation Technique!" Iruka said suddenly pointing at the class, and finishing, "Regardless if you passed the first time, if you fail now, you fail completely! And it's all because of Naruta!"

A little while later a row of ninja students stood at the front of the class, Iruka standing before them with a paper. From right to left, there were; Inuzuka Kiba with his puppy dog Akamaru on his head. The boy from the dog clan had some traits of dogs himself, a set of canines and a bush of unruly brown hair that could easily come from a dog. A thick red stripe rounding into a point was on each of his cheeks. He wore a thick coat with a furred hood down around his neck as usual.

Next to him stood Uchiha Sasuke. The boy was dressed in his usual blue shirt with the Uchiha clan symbol on his back and the high collar, and the white shorts. A hairdo with smooth locks falling partially across his face and a stuck up higher bit of loose hair on the back of his head that made girls both jealous and go gaga over him had the boys wondering whether he just got up out of bed that way - in that case; lucky bastard - or whether he spent an hour grooming it - in that case; poor girls because he would be _/so/_ gay. And going by how the boy acted, most of the other boys money was on the latter.

Next to him stood Aburame Shino. A small set of sunglasses with perfectly round glasses hid his eyes from the world. The high collar of his beige coat hid everything from mid-nose downward. His hands were comfortably in the coat's pockets - he'd be the most fearsome poker opponent you could ask for; especially since the bugs crawling through his body could be sent out to spy on your cards and you'd never be the wiser.

Next to the genius from the bug clan, stood Nara Shikamaru. The boy had his not that long hair bound together, the hair standing up on the back of his head in an obviously untreated fountain-shape - anything else would be too bothersome. "This is so troublesome," the boy muttered.

Next to that again, was Akamichi Chouji. The heavyset boy's brown hair was up about and everywhere. A green coat, a shirt, and blue shorts completed his outfit, and like his friend Shikamaru had his hands in his pockets with annoyance. He nodded in agreement with the other boy, and muttered, "Yeah, now I'm missing my afternoon meal break." His stomach rumbled audibly. "This is all because of you, Naruta."

"Like I could care about the timing of your stomach, Chouji," Naruta, who was standing next to Yamanaka Ino one down the line, muttered back in annoyance, her hands held together on her back side, back straight, and thus pushing her nearly flat chest out.

The pony-tailed blonde, with only one lock of hair hanging across the right side of her face - a lock that was carefully styled and held together with lots of hair gel - was in between the two of them. It couldn't be helped really, Hinata was like Naruta's shadow, and another place meant standing next to forehead-girl Sakura-chan - she'd die before that happened. There was, of course, the option of standing with some of the other boys and girls, but the boys to the left didn't like to have girls in their mix all that much, and the boys mixed in with a few other girls to her right for some reason didn't allow her with them - had to be Ami, that bitch, worse than everyone else put together. There were times when she idly wondered if she had offended them in some manner, but usually quickly dismissed it. It was fine with her after all, for some reason that bland bunch - only Shikamaru was blander dressed, but his hair at least stuck out - rubbed her the wrong way.

Next to Naruta stood the afore mentioned Hyuuga Hinata. Short purple hair that grew wider and longer around the base of her skull gave her a cute look. The lovely face, and shy pose certainly helped. Like all Hyuuga, the girl had eyes that seemed permanently glazed over white, it was a scary look indeed - they seemed cold, like looking in the face of death. Somehow though, the eyes managed to make her look more cute, instead of less. A thick coat, even thicker than Shino's, graced her figure, which was hidden beneath the coat. She was gently tapping her index fingers together in front of her chest in a nervous tick, a light blush adorning her cheeks.

Next to the Hyuuga-girl, finally, stood Haruna Sakura. A girl in a red, lined in white, dress ending in flaps. She had pink hair, a little wide forehead, and a red string tied in her head that kept the hair from that very same forehead.

"Uchiha Sasuke," Iruka called and the boy in question took several disinterested steps forward. He casually pulled his hands from his pockets, and made a seal.

"Henge no Jutsu," he practically muttered, and with a puff of smoke he transformed into an exact copy of Iruka-sensei. The teacher nodded, and checked the Uchiha off the list. Another puff of smoke and Sasuke was back, casually walking to rejoin the line.

"Uzumaki Naruta," Iruka called, a little bit more strained this time, looking at her with more intensity.

Hinata continued to tap her fingertips as Naruta took her first step forward. "G-good luck, Naruta-chan," the Hyuuga girl muttered shyly.

Naruta turned back half-way to look at the other girl, gave her a quick thumbs up and a wink, as she said, "Watch this, Hinata-chan."

One of these days she'd pull the girl out of her shell, Naruta thought to herself as she took up position. She gave Iruka a sweet look, that turned into an evil grin as formed the seals, "Sexy no Jutsu - Boy Version!" Iruka was too late to stop the girl and after a puff of smoke a second Umino Iruka stood in the class room - naked, only a strategically placed puff of smoke that was quickly dispersing keeping a certain something to the imagination. Iruka looked in shock - and secretly wished his body looked that good. He was in great shape of course, but the perfected body in front of him would make Greek gods jealous - not in the least place because the package his fake version was given and was becoming visible was quite a bit more respectable than the average Greek god was given - and that was putting it mildly.

Hinata's face looking at the transformation turned red like a tomato, and then she slumped unconscious. Neither of the girls around her could grab her before falling as they were all looking with dropped jaws. The boys showed faces in various stages of horror-induced constipation; except Uchiha Sasuke who just tsked and looked away in disgust, and Shikamaru who just looked away, because becoming horrified would be too troublesome.

"Seems you forgot something this morning, Iruka-sensei," the fake Iruka spoke with a perfect imitation of his voice. There was actually a momentary urge on Iruka's part to see if he had on his clothes, but refrained as anger took its place. With a puff of smoke Naruta returned, and smiled sweetly up at Iruka, the locks of hair that fell left and right perfectly framing her face and eyes making her look only more cute than she already was.

"STOP MAKING UP STUPID SKILLS, **-NARUTA!!-**" Iruka screamed in her face. Her smile didn't lower one little bit.

--

With an annoyed expression Naruta was scrubbing the Hokage Monument clean from the 'damage' she'd done to it. Not surprisingly, she wasn't exactly hurrying, some times managed to only spread the paint about instead of cleaning it off. Iruka-sensei was sitting above her, on the Second's nose.

"Oi, Naruta, you won't get to go home until you're done cleaning the Hokage Monument," Iruka told her with a loud stern voice.

Naruta looked up at him with a dark expression, and said, "Like I give a damn. It isn't like there's anyone there waiting for me." A pang of loss shot through the small girl's heart. Up until two weeks ago, from two months before that, one of three individuals had come by whenever they could - which was more often than not - and helped her to get her reading, math and some other basic skills up where it should be. Two weeks ago, they had announced that it now was, and their nightly visits had become much, much less. She understood it, of course, agreed with it too - they _/did/_ have families, friends, and such to go home to, and had been sacrificing their time with them to come by nearly every night - and now that the teaching was done, they came by much less, making it up to those families and friends. Still, despite not blaming or being angry at them, the loss of the nightly visits still hurt.

Iruka looked down at the annoyed and somewhat brooding girl, and felt a familiar pain in his own chest. Twelve years ago, the Nine-Tails had attacked, and both his parents had died defending the village. Most of his life he had spent without them. "Hey, Naruta-chan," Iruka called with a light voice, making the girl look up with partially sad eyes, "if you finish cleaning, I'll buy you ramen at Ichiruka's."

"YATTA!" Naruta yelled, and suddenly was the best and fastest cleaner that ever cleaned any stone monument. Iruka smiled at the sight.

--

"Hey, Old Cutie!" Naruta happily called as she hopped onto the stool of Ichiruka Ramen stand. Iruka's eyebrows raised lightly as he sat down. Naruta had called the proprietor, Mr. Ichiruka himself, the very same thing last time he'd taken her here. "A Naruta-Special Ramen on Iruka-sensei!" That however was new.

The Old Cutie in question, a heavy-set man with a brunette, starting-to-recede hairline, laughed heartily at the greet. "Naruta-chan, you keep flattering me like that and I'll have to marry you one of these days. Hey, Ayame! Our best customer is here!"

"I heard!" the daughter's voice called out, and popped up from wherever she'd been, "A special for her. And father, don't forget the other customer."

Ichiruka once again laughed, this time a little embarrassed and said, "It's the flirting of such a cute girl, Ayame, makes me all flustered and distracted. Iruka?"

Iruka shook his head lightly, and was glad that Naruta had at least people like this. "A standard pork ramen, Ichiruka. But what's a Naruta-special?"

The man laughed, while Ayame pointed out the dish on the menu stapled on the back wall, and explained, "Diet ramen with lots of vegetables, the ones that Naruta likes."

Naruta giggled lightly, and tapped her belly as her teacher looked at her, "Gotta keep an eye on the figure, or the Old Cutie will be the only one wanting to marry me," she answered the silent question with a wide smile. Iraku frowned, and Naruta added, "Don't worry, I'm not planning on turning into a skeleton, I already had ramen today."

"But vegetables, I remember you telling me you didn't like vegetables," Iruka said a little surprised, as the sounds of ramen being prepared coming from behind the counter. The smell, truth be told, already making his mouth water. Ichiruka's Ramen did make really good ramen.

"Gai-sensei told me that I needed more vegetables and fruit in my diet, just about more varied all around," Naruta said with a big grin, and then shrugged. "I'm doing okay on that, but there are times when I'm really in the mood for ramen, you know, so I asked the Old Cutie if there wasn't a way to combine ramen, healthy and vegetables."

"And a good thing too!" the man added with chuckle, "We got many more customers now, all women, all stopping by our humble stand since we added it to the menu. It seems there aren't many, if any, quick food stands around that have a low calorie and vegetable dish."

Iruka's eyes however were locked Naruta, and he said slowly, "Gai-sensei? Maito Gai? He's a jounin. A jounin-instructor to a genin team. He doesn't teach at the academy . . . since when is he your sensei."

"One Naruta-special and one pork ramen, for the esteemed customers," the man announced and placed the bowls and two sets of eating sticks in front of two.

"Aha!" Naruta said with a grin, and broke the eating sticks apart. Holding them above the bowl read to dig in, she announced, "Itadakimasu!" Then she took her first mouth full of the vegetable stuffed diet ramen. Once Naruta had gulped down her first mouthful she looked over at Iruka who hadn't touched his food yet. She looked up to see him still looked at her expectantly. Not wanting to ruin her sensei's meal, Naruta decided to tell her tale while eating. She looked up and tapped her chin, thinking back. How long exactly had it been? "Uh, I think it's been two or three months ago, want me to tell what happened?" The girl's bright smile was leveled at the teacher, the sticks only just above the food in the white, red-rimmed bowl.

The message was clear - the bright smile even more. Smiling Iruka took his own sticks and broke them apart, telling her, "Yes, tell me while we eat, Naruta!"

"Hai," Naruta said brightly, preparing another bite as she started to tell.

--O--

Maito Gai had his team running around Konoha for training. The man was dressed in a green spandex jumpsuit, orange legwarmers - holding enough weight to make a weightlifter dizzy - and his Jounin combat jacket. A bowl cut made him look like Bruce Lee, if his large eyebrows didn't completely destroy the image. The training was nothing like he and his most devoted student Rock Lee, pretty much a miniature version of himself, did every morning and often late every evening, but even his other team members needed some endurance training, even if it wasn't on the level of him and Rock Lee. As the four person team ran past a training area where Naruta was throwing kunai and shuriken at some targets on a tree - multiple at the same time - Maito Gai turned his head to look at her. The area was littered with kunai and shuriken, some had landed in front of the tree with the targets, even a few less than two meters away from where she stood, others were left and right, some hanging in bushes, and a few were indeed on the tree, one even in the rose of one target.

Naruta would never know, but in a different world where she was born a boy, just about the same event happened. In that world, Maito Gai would see a boy working hard, and with a shiny smile think how the youth of Konoha was burning brightly with its power, perhaps even comment on it to his team. In that world, he would simply continue to accompany his team on their run, confident that the boy's hard work would pay off in the end. There were, however, two key differences between the events here, and there.

The first difference was that Naruta was a cute girl with two long ponytails, that in some manner invoked Maito Gai's paternal instincts, and his gaze would linger a little longer, just long enough to see Naruta throw a second set of projectiles. The second difference, was that unlike the boy, Naruta's arms were bare. As such, Maito Gai would see Naruta's muscles move, and this man was a taijutsu expert. He knew the body and musculature so well, that he knew what punches and kicks an opponent would throw, along with openings he or she left, by merely looking at the opponent's feet, and thus defeat him. A little something he taught himself to beat the hypnotic effects of certain eyes. As such, Maito Gai saw something anomalous, and instead of continuing in his run with his team, here, he would tell his team to continue on without him, and slowly walk over to study the anomaly.

Frustrated almost to the point of tears, a heavily breathing Naruta in her trademark orange and blue outfit, skirt and self-restyled jacket threw another set of projectiles, and watched as again only one hit anywhere near its target. Exhausted she sank to her knees. She shook head hard, shaking away the tears threatening to come, and saying to herself, _-You will not cry, sissy girl. The future Hokage cannot cry at every set back. Get up, try again.-_ With balled fists she forced herself back to her feet and checked if she had enough projectiles left for another throw, or if she had to go get some from where they stuck in the ground and the tree.

"Hello, young one," a voice startled her and she whirled around, quickly wiping across her eyes to make sure that no tear that might have slipped out would be visible, a smile instantly on her face. And she looked directly into the weirdest looking guy she'd ever seen, also one that exuded power, and confidence, not to mention smiled at her with a smile that she swore had flashed her a shiny star of light. Which was freaky as the sun had just about finished setting, and it'd be weird enough if it were simply light reflecting off of the guys teeth. "I'm Maito Gai, Jounin sensei of one last year's graduating genin team. And who might you be? Working so hard your fires of youth caught my attention!" the man smiled again, while giving her a thumbs up, and another one of those flashes of light came from his teeth.

It did not take long for Naruta to make up her mind. This man looked at her with a warm eyes and a smile - maybe even too warm a smile - none of the cold eyes she was used to and plagued her nightmares. There were only two other people she could remember that didn't look at her with those cold eyes - Grandpa Hokage, but not surprisingly she hardly ever saw him, and Iruka Sensei, the ninja academy teacher that sometimes even took her out for Ramen. Thus, hoping the man was the genuine article, she answered, "Uzumaki Naruta."

Maito Gai had known that of course, the orange clad, prankster and demon container's reputation preceded her, but it seemed best to make formal introductions. "Uzumaki Naruta! It seems the fire of youth burns bright inside of you! Such diligent training I have seen in but few!"

"I will be Hokage one day, and surpass all the previous ones!" Naruta confirmed with a big smile on her face.

Gai knelt down to one need, looking serious at Naruta for a moment, and then exclaimed, "Yosh! The fires may burn brighter in you than in anyone else, Naruta-chan! You even make my own burn brighter! I can do no else than let you use my kunai for this noble goal! Naruta-chan!" The man presented a kunai from his pack, and Naruta looked dubiously at him and his offer. After a moment of contemplating the man's sincerity or if she was just being had, she tentatively took the kunai, then smiled.

Okay, she decided as she faced the tree with the four crosses to mark as targets. One kunai she could do pretty well, multiple ones were still too much for her. She'd show the guy what she was made of. She threw the kunai and it veered off to the left missing the tree by at least a meter. Naruta blanched, embarrassed how bad that had been, wondering if the guy was now packing up, or if that had been a trick kunai to make her feel stupid. Thus contemplating she missed Maito Gai nod thoughtfully as if in confirmation. "Yosh! Again!" He held another of his own kunai.

Naruta looked at the kunai and took it silently, and threw it. It went just as far wide as the first time, only on the other side of the tree. "Again," Gai said, this time his tone was different, serious, commanding, there was no brokering for another option. Naruta took the offered kunai, and threw it. This time it only barely missed the tree on the left side. "Again," Gai said, a soft gentle tone this time. Once again she threw a newly offered Kunai, and this time it was just above right the middle of the etched cross that was the target. "Yosh," Gai said gently, nodding. He brought out four kunai, and said, "Four at a time."

Naruta looked at him with large asking eyes for a moment, and he gave her an uncharacteristic silent encouraging nod. A few moments later four kunai flew through the air. The first, the lowest one, landed just left of the lowest cross. The second above that, landed squarely in the middle of the edge. The third the same way, at least, as close to the middle as it could get for there was one already there from a previous attempt. The fourth, landed only just below the middle. Naruta stared at the result for a moment, Gai waiting patiently. Her face brightened, and then turned into a huge smile. A moment later she jumped into the air, and screamed, "YATTA! I did it! I did it!" She stopped jumping and looked at the tree with the targets a few moments longer. Her smile faded, and she asked, "But why could I suddenly do it?"

Gai laid out an amused burst off air and handed her another one of his kunai. "Hit the tree behind this one," he offered with smile that threatened to grow in a shiny smile.

"What?" Naruta asked, flipping her head toward him, the tails flinging about cutely with the movement. "How am I supposed to do that?"

"Yosh!" Gai said, nodding in acknowledgment at the question, and he explained, "Think about the difference between how you threw your own kunai and mine. Then stop thinking about it, and just do it."

Naruta frowned, her mind going over the differences, testing a little by moving her arm about, and thinking about why she could suddenly throw straight with Gai's kunai, and now another piece of the puzzle. Then she stopped thinking about it, and threw the kunai. It twisted around its own axis, and the handle and thus point seemed twisted back and forth, up and down seemingly randomly, but it smoothly curved her target tree on its left, turned slowly right, and then just chipped the tree behind her target tree on the left side, falling to the ground almost immediately.

"That was very good, Naruta-chan!" Gai exclaimed with a raised thumb and a large grin that once again gave a shiny sparkle. Naruta looked surprised at the kneeling man, and then down, her thoughts once again going back to how she could throw more than acceptably well with Gai's kunai, but couldn't really hit anything with her own. Gai's open hand appeared in her view below her. She looked up for a moment, and then pulled out a kunai of her own and placed it on Gai's hand. The man examined it for a moment, and then nodded. "Yosh," he said with a sad voice. He took her hand led her thumb along a slight hump, then onward to tiny chip and a few more uneven patches, and finally to a tiny tiny crack she could just barely feel. "Feel those?" he asked, and Naruta nodded, the estimation of the man going up and it was pretty much through the roof to begin with - he had _/seen/_ in seconds what she hadn't seen in over a year, and could barely feel. "Now feel along this one," Gai said handing out one of his own. The sides were smooth all around.

"They sold me . . ." Naruta started then trailed off, looking down, feeling a familiar resentment, pain and anger inside of her grow to new proportions. She knew the people in the village hated her for no apparent reason - but this . . . defective equipment might mean she'd die if she ever got to go on a mission. She shrank a little more in on herself, unable to find a way to deal with the newest revelation, one she'd refused to allow herself to see.

Maito Gai watched the girl's reaction with a pain in his own heart. For all her brightness and fires of youth burning in her, there was an obvious darkness there, a darkness that threatened to consume those beautiful fires, anger and resentment he could feel radiating off of her easily, and he was afraid it even started heading toward an intent to kill. He sighed softly and looked up at the slowly darkening late afternoon sky, and thought, _-Forgive me, Hokage-sama, but I will have to break your law. It was a noble effort, one that probably worked in the beginning, but now it's killing her. Soon her fires of youth will be extinguished and that would be a tragedy, for her, and for all of us.-_

"Yosh! Do you know why they treat you like this, Naruta-chan?" Gai asked with a large smile again, and Naruta looked up at him. She shook her head 'no', her pony tails flopping cutely back and forth again, her eyes still simmering with the darkness inside her. "Do you know what happened on your day of birth, Naruta-chan?"

"Uh . . ." Naruta said, thinking hard. First, what was her birthday again? She never celebrated it, nobody celebrated it, so she never kept track. Tenth October, right? She gave herself a mental nod, yes, that was it. She'd just turned twelve. Ten October twelve years ago, what happened . . . "The Nine-Tails attacked," she said with slight amazement, she'd never realized she'd been born on _/that/_ day of all days.

"Yes, and do you think a mere mortal man, even as great as the Fourth Hokage could destroy a demon so powerful it could cause typhoons with but a single swish of its tail, and crumble mountains with another?" Gai-sensei asked her solemnly. He found all this solemness was bad for the mood, better get through this quickly so the fires of youth could once more burn brightly.

Naruta looked the man, her newest friend - it was not hard for Naruta to consider someone her friend. Don't look at her with those cold, hate-filled eyes the average person in Konoha looked at her with, was enough really. Very few fit that profile, there was Old Cutie Ichiruka and his daughter Ayame from the ramen stand, and Grandpa Hokage, but the first were just venders, and the latter was the Hokage and she didn't see him often. The final one that fit that profile, was Iruka-sensei, and he was the one she truly considered her first real grown up friend, the man that sometimes bought her ramen, the first one that acknowledged her as more than a screw up, a girl to be hated, or a joke. He saw passed all that, gave her help, tips and pointers, and here there was another that was doing that for her. Her thoughts were divided between that marvel and his words, his question. Could the Fourth really have killed such a monster, and then her birthday, and the way people looked at her, what they called her sometimes along with all the other names, 'demon brat'. She never fully understood the name, but now . . . "I'm-I'm . . . am I . . .?" she muttered out.

"No, Naruta-chan, you are not the monster. You are its prison, and its prison guard rolled into one," Gai said with a grin, and placed his right index finger gently on her belly button. She looked down at it, and felt Gai manipulate a little chakra with that finger, and where her tight blue undershirt did not obscure her skin from sight, some black circles and symbols appeared. "He sealed the monster in you, a just born baby was the only place he could seal it. You are a hero, Naruta-chan. A guardian of Konoha, you keep the Nine-Tails locked up. That is the way the Fourth wanted Konoha to see you." Gai sighed deeply, looking down for a moment, then looked up into the deep blue eyes of Naruta. "Sadly, fear, anger, and resentment, make it that they don't."

Naruta went through a myriad of emotions. Starting with pain at horror of being the monster, then shock and confusion about being a prison, elation at being a hero and Fourth Hokage, possibly the greatest of them all, considering her one, and finally back to the dark resentment and a growing anger at the villagers. "Is that an excuse?" she asked darkly, then looked into Gai's eyes, "Does that mean they can just . . ." She held up her defective kunai.

"No, Naruta-chan. They are all bad people for letting their fires of youth be dowsed by their fear and anger. It is a reason, however, they are not evil people. Evil people need no reason to hurt others, they simply do so out of their own selfish desires! So if deep down they are good people, Naruta-chan, what do you think happens if you take away the reason?" Gai-sensei spoke with his trademark loud and boisterous voice, once again finished with a smile that had light twinkling in Naruta's eyes, threatening to blind her, even. Naruta grinned, having an idea, but Gai-sensei happily voiced it, "They'll feel stupid, bad, guilty, very, very sorry, and will desperately find a way to make it up. They're youthful fires can burn brightly once more! Yosh!"

Gai watched as Naruta grinned, and her right arm and fist trembled lightly. For Naruta this was more than just any revelation, it was more than an acknowledgment. For more than a year she'd been screaming she'd be Hokage one day, and have all sorts of derisive comments thrown at it. It had only made her scream it all the more loudly of course, and be more certain it should be her goal, her dream, but there had always been doubts, the darker side of her rearing its ugly head. Now, Gai allayed every one of those doubts, she'd been on the exact right track all along. Her right hand shot up in the sky, the index extending from the fist, and at the top of her lungs, she yelled, "THAN I'LL MAKE DOUBLY SURE I'LL BECOME HOKAGE AND MAKE THEM ALL ACKNOWLEDGE MY STRENGTH!!"

"YOSH!" Gai agreed, his heart warming at the bright grin now adorning the girl in front of him. He stood himself, mimicking Naruta's gesture, and he added, "YOUR FIRES OF YOUTH BURN BRIGHTER STILL, NARUTA-CHAN!" Their arms came down, Naruta laughed and giggled, and Gai gave her one more of those twinkling smiles, and asked, "And how hard are you willing to work for that goal, Naruta-chan!"

"I'll do anything!" Naruta happily exclaimed - she didn't need to think about that answer at all.

"Yosh! Then I'll give you an invitation, Naruta-chan. Me and my most devoted student Rock Lee, start our taijutsu training at six in the morning every day, if you're willing to work harder than you've ever worked, you can join us tomorrow at that time on training ground nine," Gai told her loudly.

Six in the morning!? Naruta blanched. That was early, really, really early. She set her face with determination, and nodding, she said with a steel voice that surprised even Gai, "I'll be there!"

It was at that moment that Gai's team returned from their round around Konoha. "Gai-sensei!" the Gai-clone called out loudly, "we have completed our round." The other two team mates became visible to Naruta as well, a brunette girl in a formal-looking wrap-around dress, and her hair done in two buns. The last was a guy with long hair and the same weird all white, pupilless-eyes that her classmate Hinata-chan had.

"LEE!" Gai-sensei called back with passion, "Tomorrow you will gain a new training and sparring partner who's fires of youth may burn brighter than even ours!"

"TRULY GAI-SENSEI!" the clone yelled out with passion, his right hand in a fist in front of him. And was Naruta seeing right? Were there really bonfires burning brightly in Rock Lee's eyes? "It would be an honor to meet such a person!"

"She's standing right here, Lee! Your new Naruta-neechan!" Gai exclaimed with a similar look that Naruta didn't see since her eyes were on Gai's team. The girl looked backward to the guy, and muttered what Naruta suspected was 'she?' The guy with the white eyes shrugged. Naruta in the meantime was marveling. The hand on her head that exuded pride and confidence in her made her feel eight feet tall, and she didn't have to think about being considered the fuzzy-brows little sister. Some other might blanch and runaway screaming, Naruta's little heart just filled with marvel. She had after all, no parents, no siblings, up until recently nothing and nobody at all. She's happily take anything she could get.

"Ooooaah! Naruta-neechan, I promise I will not let you down! I will keep up with the brightness of your fires!" Rock Lee exclaimed, his right hand extended with an upward thumb, and flashing Naruta a same shiny smile as Gai-sensei was flashing her all the time.

"Well said, Lee!" Gai exclaimed, his own right hand extending instantly in his own thumbs up sign.

"Thank you, Gai-sensei!" Lee returned, his eyes tearing up. The girl and the boy rolled their eyes at each other.

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!" Even Naruta started to wonder what she'd gotten herself into.

"And Tenten," Gai changed the topic and settled on the girl, "I believe I have found a way for you to train throwing things with effect better."

"Really?" Tenten asked, suddenly not annoyed anymore. Gai nodded with a twinkling smile, twirling one of Naruta's defective kunai around his right index finger. The significance of which completely lost on the brunette girl.

"Yosh!" Gai-sensei exclaimed in confirmation, "but I still have a few more things to discuss and test out with the originator of the training method . . ." Gai-sensei said, tapping his hand gently on the brightly smiling Naruta, ". . . so you'll have to make one more round without me."

"YOSH!" Rock Lee screamed, his left arm and index finger into the air, bonfires once more burning in his eyes. "Tenten! Neji! Let us show Naruta-neechan the fires of our youth! ONWARD!" And the Gai-clone was off running.

Tenten turned around and she and Neji debated silently whether or not they should comment, and finally just settled on a mutual, defeated, grumbling sigh and started off after their team mate.

--O--

Naruta finished her story, having made sure not to mention Gai telling about the demon in her belly button as she didn't want to get the man into trouble, and looked up at Iruka-sensei with a smile. Neither of them, nor Old Cutie Ichiruka noticing Ayame's fist and eyes squinted in rage. Iruka looked astounded at his favorite student, and repeated back, "You are training with Maito Gai, _/the/_ Maito Gai, every morning. The one in icky green spandex?" Iruka didn't trust himself to talk about the revelation that Naruta's equipment had been essentially sabotaged.

"Yeah," Naruta answered brightly, nodding.

The reason why Iruka didn't trust himself to talk, showed itself at that moment. **"-I'm going to kill them all!-"** the voice sounded as if coming from a demon. Ayame's rage washed over them, making itself known like a killing intent that terrified them all - which was no mean feat for someone who was no ninja. **"-That Uchiha brat a few years ago shouldn't have stopped with his own clan, he should've finished off all of Konoha. And I'll finish it for him!-" ** Iruka had been to afraid his own anger would show through if he broached that subject, and he'd knew it only embarrass Naruta.

"Nah, Ayame, leave it be," Naruta tried to wave Ayame's anger away, her other arm, her left, holding on to the back of her head. A light blush was on her cheeks. Iruka nodded inwardly - he was right, Naruta was just embarrassed.

Naruta's bright smile calmed Ayame down enough for her too see facts - one girl ramen cook versus a village of perfectly trained killers, she wouldn't stand a chance - and she nodded. "It's just wrong, Naruta," Ayame said softly.

"Don't worry, Ayame, once I'm Hokage and the village has acknowledged my strength, they'll all feel guilty and be groveling at my feet for forgiveness. It's all good," Naruta spoke with a bright smile, sticking her right thumb up to Ayame and the Old Cutie. Both smiled gently.

Iruka shuddered lightly. For a moment he sought he saw a shiny, blinking light on Naruta's teeth. He really hoped that the infamous 'Nice Guy pose' was the only thing Naruta picked up from the crazy green-clothed Jounin; not counting the actually jutsu, mostly taijutsu no doubt, the green-clad weirdo taught her of course.

"Naruta-chan," Iruka started thoughtfully, and the girl turned back to her teacher, "do you not know who and what the Hokage's are?"

"Of course, I know, I'm going to take the Hokage name after all. They are the most powerful ninja of the village, and protect it. The Fourth gave his life to defeat the Nine-Tails," Naruta stated with a grin, struggling a little to keep the smile on her face, now that she knew how the Fourth Hokage did that.

"Then why did you do that to the monument?" Iruka asked slightly confused.

Naruta looked up at him, and then smiled, "_/Because/_ I'm going to be Hokage, and surpass all the previous ones. It's to tell everyone, including those four up there, I'm coming."

Iruka peered in the girl's sparkling blue eyes, having turned back to him after briefly following a pointing finger toward the monument. Then he grinned, and placed his right hand on her head, gently ruffling her hair and said, "You keep training and getting better, Naruta-chan, and you might just make that."

"Hai!" Naruta happily answer.

"But that only works if you go to bed now and make sure you're on time for the Academy Graduation Exam tomorrow morning," he pointed out to her.

"True! Old Cutie! Ayame! See you tomorrow!" Naruta shouted loudly and then slipped off the stool as the ramen stand owners returned the farewell. "And Iruka-sensei, you watch tomorrow, I won't just pass, I'll astound you!" And then she happily ran off, leaving three smiling adults looking after her.

--

"Hey, Sasuke-kun, I knew I could find you here!" Naruta called with a sweet smile, walking down the small grassy incline. A small lake was in front of her, where Uchiha Sasuke, the number 1 rookie genius was sitting, doing his usual brooding. With daylight nearly gone, the ninja genius seemed exceptionally drool worthy.

"Nh," was all the boy returned. Naruta easily translated it as, 'Of course you found me here. You've been joining me here often enough. You're being annoying again.'

Naruta giggled, and as she reached the sandy path just before the dock started, she asked, "Wanna spar?"

This time the brooding Uchiha bothered to look around, putting his piercing gaze on Naruta, making her heart flutter for a moment. He was _/so/_ hot! _-Uchiha Naruta,-_ she thought to herself with a light shiver.

"Why do you always insist on getting your ass kicked, Naruta?" Sasuke asked with a dark tone.

"Because one of these days I'm going to surprise you, Sasuke-kun. And after that it's straight on to the Hokage name!" Naruta told him with a huge grin. Sasuke grunted. "Oh, come on, for me?" Naruta added, giving him her best puppy dog eyes.

Sasuke sighed, and as he got up, he said, "Fine. If you like to be beaten so much." Disinterested, with his hands remaining in his pockets as usual, the Uchiha casually walked over to the path, and stood across from her. "Let's go then," he muttered, hands remaining in his pockets.

Naruta smirked at him, and with a flick the bands on her upper arms released, and fell down onto the gravel with a heavy thud. Sasuke's eyes actually widened slightly. The wrist bands followed with the same heavy thud, and finally the stylish shin protectors joined them, with another heavy thud. That had to be some twenty to thirty kilograms at least, the Uchiha realized with surprise. "Here I come, Sasuke-kun!" Naruta announced and surged forward, throwing a rapid jab to Sasuke's head.

Sasuke's left hand shot up from his pocket and blocked the punch just in time. He looked at the connecting arms with slightly widened eyes. "Oh!" Naruta said with a sweet voice, "Did I actually force my Sasuke-kun to use his hands finally?"

"Tseh," came the reply, sounding somewhat angry. Naruta once again easily translated as, 'You've improved, I'm actually impressed, but I'll never tell you that; let me show you my disdain by kicking your ass - 'cause I'm not _/your/_ Sasuke-kun!'

Sasuke's right foot rose rapidly toward Naruta's chin, and her left hand quickly deflected it, taking a step back. Sasuke's left hand already came for her face. She grabbed it and twisted with the momentum, pulling the Uchiha up and over. The genius wasn't so easily outdone though, and he twisted around in the air, grabbed her arm with his other hand as well, and brought his feet forward. His feet smashed squarely in Naruta's stomach and with a moan of pain she was launched backward. Sasuke's movement was stopped by the collision, and so he dropped unceremoniously and unbecoming an Uchiha down on his back side, so he got up especially quickly.

Naruta grunted as she slammed on the floor herself, her body jerking backward, her head dangerously close to slamming into the ground. She stopped her fall by slamming her hands on the ground, and she got up almost as fast as Sasuke did.

Naruta smiled sweetly at the slightly frowning Sasuke, despite the throbbing where her feet had connected. They surged forward, and exchanged several blows they blocked or avoided, and then Naruta shrank down and performed a leg sweep. He easily avoided it by jumping forward with a crouching jump, but she immediately flipped backward into a handstand, and her right foot came straight for him. He was actually surprised, but dove forward, hands first and kicking his body up, thus avoiding the kick. He landed on his hands, flipped forward, and then twisted backward, forming a powerful roundhouse kick.

Naruta jumped high suddenly, over the roundhouse kick and started twisting herself around in the air. "Konoha Senpuu!" she exclaimed, her legs moving up and in a areal spinning kick. Still imbalanced from the missed roundhouse kick, Sasuke brought up his hands to desperately defend against it. The first two kicks he blocked, but blocking them still meant he was hit and it further imbalanced him. The third kick became unavoidable, even if practically diving backward meant it was only a glancing hit to his right cheek.

Naruta landed and quickly turned to face him, but more to confirm if what she felt was true. It was. Sasuke felt his right cheek, wincing when he touched the painful throbbing place. He pulled his finger back from the smudge and looked at it with a little surprise. "Yes!" Naruta exclaimed with a grin, making a triumphant fist, "I finally managed to land a hit!" Sasuke gave an annoyed grunt, and Naruta took him in closer. Did she really see a light sheen of sweat on his forehead? She did. "Ooh, Sasuke-kun!" she said with a sweet innocent look in her eyes, "You actually broke a sweat having to fight me." She smiled and gave him a warning index finger, "Better watch out, I smell that and I might loose all self-control and jump your bones."

"You wish you could," Sasuke all but grunted, and suddenly moved forward. Naruta's eyes widened, and managed to only just block the first much faster punch. The second punch was a feint and he grabbed ahold of her block. A palm thrust to her chest, followed to one sharply upward into her chin was all it took. Before she slammed onto the ground, all was dark.

--

With a groan Naruta slowly opened her eyes, and then forced herself to sit up. She looked around, she'd been lying next to Sasuke on the dock, with him sitting in his customary position - one leg over the edge, the other foot on the dock, his knee underneath his chin - brooding.

Both her feet and lower legs dangling over the edge, Naruta noticed her weights lying next to her. Sasuke had obviously pulled her away from her previous position, and had taken the time to place her weights next to her. "Ugh, I hate it when that happens," she muttered disappointed, and started putting the weights back on.

"You have improved a lot," Sasuke commented from his position.

"Oh, such care and emotion! I'm touched, Sasuke-kun," Naruta smiled at him.

Sasuke turned his head to put his piercing, and heart-fluttering gaze directly on Naruta, and asked in a frosty tone, "Care and emotion?"

Naruta's smile turned to a grin, and explained, "You bothered with an entire sentence, Sasuke-kun." Sasuke grumbled. "See what I mean," she asked smiling.

"You ready for tomorrow?" Sasuke asked her with a tone that said he didn't care. Naruta knew better.

"Oh, yeah! This time, I'm going to ace that exam!" Naruta exclaimed with a finger pointing to the sky, a big smile on her face. "About that exam, it's about time I get to bed, Sasuke-kun. You wouldn't be willing to join me, would you?" Naruta asked with an 'innocent' smile. The Uchiha just looked at her. Naruta laughed, and as she turned around to leave, said, "See you tomorrow, Sasuke."

"Hey, Naruta," Sasuke called, and a smiling Naruta turned back around, "why do you always makes those stupid jokes, turn everything into one, and laugh or smile constantly."

Naruta smiled a moment longer, looking at him, weighing her options, and then it disappeared as she turned back around. Sasuke was surprised. He'd never seen such a serious expression on her face at all. She reached him, and stayed standing over his sitting form. "Remember when I first joined you here?" He nodded. "Simply put, Sasuke. We are similar, but not the same," Naruta started her explanation. "When I found out that you were alone, like me, however bad it sounds, I felt elated that I was not the only one. Back then, I almost didn't come down. You still have everyone in Konoha doting on you, I have nobody. Only hate-filled eyes, Sasuke." Sasuke was a little taken aback by that statement, he had never really bothered to look at how Naruta was treated. More so, though, he could see into the serious eyes of Naruta, and for several moments, the depth of her pain was open to him, and it was a shocking depth. It was looking into pools of complete misery. "I couldn't bare the possibility that even you, so similar to me, would reject me; so for a while I thought that I would have to be your equal before I would approach you . . . it wasn't until I realized that me as a girl being your equal would probably have you run away sooner than the opposite, that I went and talked with you.

"In other words, Sasuke. Smiles, and anything that makes me smile, even fake smiles . . . they're the only thing that make this life bearable," Naruta finished, leaving her serious face on a bit longer, keeping Sasuke entranced as his mind went over her words. Suddenly the serious face was gone, and the sweet smile returned, "Which means you should smile yourself once in a while, better yet, quite a bit more often than that, Sasuke-kun! Never smile or laugh, and your loneliness will only get worse." Then she leant forward and placed a caring kiss on his forehead, conveying her care for him. Sasuke's eyes widened and Naruta straightened back up. "Ooh!" she exclaimed, happily bringing her hands together in front of her chest. She turned and walked away again, "Sasuke-kun let me kiss his forehead! I gotta be serious more often! Next times lips, then tongue . . ." She looked over her shoulder as surreptitiously as a bull in front of red, smiling, and saw a ghost of a smile filter over the Uchiha's face. "A smile! Sasuke-kun smiled! I'll melt his heart yet! Now on to the full fledged belly laugh!"

Sasuke shook his head, but somehow he couldn't quite keep the corners of his mouth from turning up.

--

Naruta grinned a secret smile as she waited her turn. She, and the others taking the exam, were sitting in the class room. One by one the students in front of her filed out as one of the two examiners - Iruka-sensei, or Mizuki-sensei came to call one. A short while later a happy student would rush passed the door. Then a few moments after that, the teacher would once again reach the door, and call out a name.

Finally only she and Yamanaka Ino remained, and her name was called. Ino let her hand slump down on the table, saying, "I hate always waiting to last. I should change my name."

Naruta payed her no mind, and slowly walked toward the door, waited till he was turned back around to walk to the examination room. Quickly she made the seals for the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, started up the technique, and held it there . . .

--O--

"Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruta exclaimed happily. There was a far too great puff of smoke, and then the bunshin - an illusionary copy, essentially a clone, of herself - appeared. It was sickly, its colors washed out, it was lying on the floor, and its head was trapped in its stomach. Another puff of smoke and the clone disappeared. Naruta's excitement disappeared along with it, her shoulders slumping.

The woods around them only had the sounds of Rock Lee's yells counting out the number of punches he was slamming into the log. Or maybe there were more sounds, but they were just overpowered by Rock Lee's enthusiastic counting. Maito Gai stood watching Naruta thoughtfully, his right hand holding his chin.

"Do it again, Naruta-chan!" Maito Gai exclaimed heartily, finishing, "No straining this time!" There was something he started suspecting having taken on the responsibility to train Naruta in the use of jutsu as well - at the very least the academy level techniques so she could graduate.

Naruta looked confused for a moment, and then happily said, "Hai!" She concentrated, stopped herself from straining, and once again performed the jutsu, "Bunshin no jutsu!" Once again the clone appeared, once again sickly - at least its head was now in the right position.

"I see," Gai said thoughtfully for a moment and then grinned; his teeth giving off its trademark blink. "Naruta-chan, have you ever heard of 'Chakra Control'?"

Naruta looked down depressed, and nodded her head slowly. "It's how well you can control chakra, apparently I suck at it," she said with a small voice.

"Not so down, Naruta-chan! Do not forget the fires of your youth!" Gai exclaimed with another shiny smile. Rock Lee actually gave a 'yosh' at the exclaim and redoubled his efforts. "I think you're above average, actually," Gai spoke with a wide grin. Naruta just looked at him with a gaping mouth, not believing what Gai said. Not that she had that little self-esteem, it was just the complete opposite of what any teacher and fellow student had every told her. "Your chakra capacity and stamina is amazing, Naruta-chan! It is greater than my own!"

"It is?" Naruta-chan asked.

A surprised, "It is, Gai-sensei!?" came from Rock Lee before he resumed his training. The boy could hardly imagine a jounin be his Gai-sensei's superior in anything, much less his Naruta-neechan.

"It is!" Gai stated with a grin and a nod, "You were taught to pull out your chakra for a jutsu and when it didn't quite go right, to put in more, to compensate for your lack of control, right!?"

Naruta-chan nodded, and added, "That's what they taught us."

"For you, that is completely wrong, Naruta-chan!" Gai said with a shiny grin, "The first time you pull out chakra it already is so much it overloads the technique! Putting in even more, will only make it worse! That's why your last clone was better than the earlier ones."

Naruta looked perplexed at the revelation, getting the urge to look at where her clones had been lying, but not giving in. "Simply put, Naruta-chan!" Gai explained with a large grin - for once not a shiny one, "Most people start out with but a trickle of chakra, as they grow older and more powerful, they may push them up to be a faucet fully open. But you, Naruta-chan, you've started out with a fire hose at full blast! It is too much for the size of your body. Attempting a low-chakra jutsu will therefor go completely wrong, can you imagine?"

Naruta-chan blushed lightly as she nodded. Remembering a prank she thought had been particularly inspired, until the fire hose she needed tossed her about, even going into the air with her hanging on for dear life. She'd been too light and become the fire hose's toy instead it being her tool. Iruka-sensei had finally saved her further embarrassed by closing the water dial - then scolded her heavily.

"Yosh! The control you have over your chakra is therefore very bad, but for you to have as little control as you do have, your chakra control would have to be above average," Gai explained a little thoughtfully while Naruta happily nodded. She got a compliment, and her sensei had just told her she was very powerful - Uzumaki Naruta couldn't be happier. "I will give you several chakra control exercises that you will have to do whenever you have the chance - the more control you have over all that chakra the better. But more importantly, you must work on limiting the amount of chakra you release whenever you do a jutsu, or for that matter anything."

"How do I do that!?" Naruta shouted out happily, barely able to keep herself from jumping about. Actually, scratch 'barely', she was making small hops already that were threatening to turn into a high jumps.

"Ah, well, I do not know, Naruta-chan!" Gai-sensei said loudly but nervously, the nervous laugh for once not blinding Naruta's eyes. "I have but little chakra capacity. I can make but a few jutsu before I run out. It's why I became the best at taijutsu I could be, to compensate for that weakness. So, limiting my chakra is not something that ever came up! In fact, I don't think it's _/ever/_ come up with anyone! Naruta-chan! You will have to apply your youthful spirit to his problem, and find out how to do it yourself through hard work! Trial and error!"

"Hai, Gai-sensei!" Naruta exclaimed with a smile.

"Yosh!" Rock Lee exclaimed interrupting his training loudly, sticking out a raged right thumb to Naruta, "Another genius of hard work will emerge!" He smiled his bright, shiny smile, and gave a wink. Naruta was confused, but didn't have time to ask what that meant, for . . .

"Lee!" Gai-sensei exclaimed, tears flowing freely.

"Gai-sensei!" Lee returned and the two went to hug each other. Correction, Naruta noticed, they came to hug her. Gai-sensei went down to his knee and a moment late she was enveloped in a crushing double hug.

"Lee! Naruta-chan!" Gai-sensei exclaimed, crying.

Naruta was being hugged. The warmth of caring individuals enveloped her body along with their limbs and other body part. It was supportive, it felt good - it was the very first hug Naruta ever found herself in. Iruka-sensei may have been the first one to treat her - well, like he treated everyone else - but this . . . some happy tears spilled from her eyes. This was very nice.

"Gai-sensei! Naruta-neechan!" Rock Lee exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Lee-niisan! Gai-sensei!" Naruta exclaimed just as enthusiastically, and then cringed. Okay, this was just getting embarrassing now - actually, it already was. And the two spandex-clad men didn't seem about to stop, exclaiming two names again. What was going on with these two? She was a _/girl/_, who'd _/never/_ been hugged before and this was embarrassing to _/her/_. And these two _/men/_ showed not a momentary sign of finding this in anyway awkward. There was definitely something wrong with them. It wasn't a bad kind of wrong, and she wouldn't trade their companionship for anything, and would happily continue to consider them friends and big brothers - but there was definitely something _/wrong/_ with these two.

--

**About two months later**

Behind Naruta, Tenten and Lee were in a light sparring match. "Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruta exclaimed, and the clone appeared. It was standing. It had all its body parts in the right position, its pony tails fluttered like hair should, and its colors weren't washed out . . . its skin was greenish sickly though. It also promptly started wobbling about.

The clone raised a drunken finger as it asked, "Hey, how come I'm drunk?" Then it toppled over, slammed into the ground, and disappeared in a puff.

Naruta's shoulders slumped. "Much better, Naruta-chan! I can see the hard work fueled by the fires of youth have improved your control!" Maito Gai exclaimed with a large grin once again blinking bright light at Naruta, his upward thumb once more sticking out. "However, I fear you will not master the Bunshin no Jutsu before the graduation exam at this rate."

Naruta looked up, pain in her eyes. "Gai-sensei! Can I not get a special examination like Lee did? He's proven he's a good ninja without ninjutsu or genjutsu!" Naruta exclaimed painfully, the statement that Lee behind took as a huge compliment made him falter and getting a solid punch from Tenten in his face, who gleefully pushed her novel advantage. "I can do ninjutsu, I can disband genjutsu, _/and/_ have gotten much stronger. I just can't do jutsu that take a small amount of chakra - yet!"

Gai laughed gently, "No! Naruta, remember what I said about your pranks and why?"

"Uh," Naruta hesitated a moment, still pained at her teacher apparently expecting her to fail again - unless he had something else up his sleeve, "Continue, because it's good training in subterfuge, trap detection, avoidance, and disabling. It makes everyone keep looking at me as the 'dead last', and this is good because other village can send some information gatherers here easily as people hiring for missions."

"Exactly, Naruta!" Gai took over, giving her another 'Nice Guy Pose', and explained further, "They can easily take a look around genins and chuunins, a look the academy, and make notes on their skills. Konoha does the same. It's much better potential future enemies think you're nothing and then surprise them, than that they know everything there is to know. And a special examination might tip those people off not everything is as it seems, Naruta-chan."

Naruta nodded weakly. "Don't worry Naruta-chan, if there is no other way, I'll make sure you get that special examination, but first, we'll try subterfuge," Gai-sensei told her with another grin. "Yosh! Prepare your youthful spirit, Naruta-chan! For I will learn you a new jutsu! Behold! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Gai made the seals and a moment later a clone of himself stood next to him.

"Huh?" Naruta was a little confused. Shadow Clone? What was the difference?

Two smiling Gai's, both smiles shining for all too see, took a step forward and placed their right and left hand on her head. She could feel _/both/_ hands! "This is the Kage Bunshin, Naruta-chan!" the real Gai explained with his usual grin. "It creates an actual body, it can be used in battle, the more advanced versions can even use jutsu. The more chakra you put into performing the technique the more advanced they become, but there are limitations. Most notably chakra drain." The clone disappeared with a puff of smoke, and Gai sagged through his knees, and Naruta knew it wasn't just to be at the same height as she was. Breathing heavily, Gai continued, "Once created, your remaining chakra gets spread evenly across all your clones, and this is dangerous. Once dispersed forcefully by an enemy or otherwise, all but a tiny bit of chakra returns to you. If you disperse them yourself by ending the jutsu, you can retrieve more of it, and the better chakra control you have the more you can pull back, but never much. The more clones you create, and the more you have your clones do, especially jutsu, the greater the chakra drain is. It is a jounin level technique, Naruta-chan, and a forbidden one because of how quickly it drains chakra. Even jounin like me, are rapidly reduced to useless with but few, or even one. The only ones who are allowed to learn it, are those with great chakra capacity."

"Like me!" Naruta exclaimed, and then frowned. "Then how do you know it?"

"Ah! That ultra-hip, eternal rival of mine, Hatake Kakashi once taught it to me as an infernal trick to make me lose one of our challenges!" Gai stated with great annoyance. "That one knew how rapidly it would leave me defeated with my level of chakra!"

"But how will it make me pass the test, Gai-sensei," Naruta asked again. "They would see me do this jutsu, wouldn't they?"

The 'Nice Guy Pose' came out again, thumb up, shiny smile, and Gai said, "Very good question, Naruta-chan! You have made much progress! But I'll explain that, and one special property of this jutsu that will make it possible after you've mastered it."

Naruta smiled brightly at him, and nodded. "Hai, Gai-sensei," Gai-sensei, she said with a quite excitement.

"Now, this how one performs the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," Gai started explaining.

--

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruta exclaimed, and with a shimmer a second version of herself appeared next to her. "Yatta!" she exclaimed with a grin, breathing a little heavier. The clone came over and touched her forward, she felt the touch.

"Oh-oh-oh! Naruta-chan! It took you only a day! You burn bright, indeed!" Gai exclaimed with a huge, and equally shiny grin.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruta showed her agreement by performing it again, a second clone appearing. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruta went again, and grinned brightly as a third one appeared.

"Well, Naruta-chan, do you feel any drain?" Gai asked with a expectant smile.

Naruta frowned, and then made the seals again, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Gai watched shocked as another twenty or thirty clones appeared. "Does this answer your question, Gai-sensei! Nothing! One day we will _/all/_ be hokage!"

The Naruta up front, twitched her eyebrows and turned around to face the clones. "_/You/_ will _/all/_ be Hokage!?"

Gai looked astounded, and thought to himself, _-Incredible. Clones so independent they argue with the original. So much chakra needed for that, then cut in thirty and still not noticing any drain. What monstrously youthful chakra capacity!-_

"Yosh!" Gai exclaimed with a smile, interrupting the possible fight that might very well break out. "Naruta-chan, disperse all but one clone."

"Oh, yeah, I can do that," Naruta said with a grin, and flicked her mind at the jutsu. With puffs of smoke all but one clone disappeared.

"Now have that one run circles around you," Gai told her with a smile.

Naruta shrugged, and looked at the clone. It sighed with annoyance and started running. "Now, Naruta-chan, pay very close attention to the clone and your mind."

"Okay," Naruta told him again, and did just that. After a half a minute or two, Naruta asked, "Uh, what's supposed to happen?"

Gai grinned, and with a poke the clone was dispersed. "Huh?" Naruta said, looking at the thinning cloud of smoke. Naruta frowned, while keeping attention to her mind . . . and then, with there but one clone and her not preoccupied by other things, and her focused on her mind, and no filtering going on, she was suddenly aware of a new set of memories entering her brain. It was of herself, running around herself. "Whoa! I got the shadow clone's memories!" Naruta exclaimed with surprise.

Gai nodded and spoke sagely, "That is what makes the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu such a powerful technique. You can send the clone into a heavily guarded fort, and get whatever information you want, then you just disperse it, or even have it run a distraction while you remove yourself from the area. You have gained the information without yourself ever being in jeopardy, for example. But also, training! Whatever experiences and insights your clones gain trying to achieve something, you will gain."

Naruta looked at him with a grin, "So I train for a while with clones, disperse them, and start over again, the new clones having all the information I got from the first batch, right!"

"Yosh! Naruta-chan! You are sharp! Now comes what we're going to train," Gai spoke, giving her a thumbs-up once again, "It's rather high level, how to do a jutsu, without unleashing it right away. Carry it within yourself and then when you need it let it out."

Naruta's eyes sparkled, a smile creeping on her face, "So I can do the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, hold it, then give the seals of the Bunshin no jutsu, making it look like I did the Bunshin no Jutsu at the exam, if that's the exam, right?" Not surprisingly, another 'Nice Guy Pose' followed.

--O--

Naruta walked into the examination room behind Iruka-sensei. She saw another teacher already present sitting behind a desk at the front, his name was Mizuki, and had shoulder-length grey hair, a bandana over it. The classroom was empty, apart from the desk, the two examiners, and Naruta. Iruka pointed to the middle of the room in front of the table, and she walked over. Iruka sat down next to Mizuki.

"Well, Naruta-chan," Iruka-sensei began with a light smile. He really hoped for Naruta she could pass. Somehow he doubted she would actually succeed in astounding him. Naruta liked to bluff, a lot. "The examination we do, will be the Bunshin no Jutsu, you have to make three of them useful in battle."

Yes! She hadn't charged up the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu for nothing. "Only three!?" Naruta called out loud, "How about thirty!?" She made the seals for the Bunshin no Jutsu, called out its name and released the readied Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. A large puff of smoke and thirty shimmers later and the room was full of them. "Now watch this!" Naruta exclaimed and the clones made some seals. "Henge!" A moment later fifteen Mizukis, fifteen Irukas, and one Naruta up-front stood looking at the examiners. All of them pointed their right index finger at Iruka, and called loudly, "Well, Iruka-sensei!? Astounded yet!?"

Both the examiners had their eyes wide in surprise. Clones that appeared in someone else's appearance was possible of course, but it was an ability that usually didn't manifest in a ninja until after they graduated from the academy. When a genin could do this, they were usually ready to take the chuunin exam. "Naruta-chan," Iruka-sensei gently, and then suddenly screamed loudly, "YOU PASS!"

Naruta laughed gently as she dispersed the clones. "Ah, Iruka-san, you don't have to be so loud about it, or at least give me some warning so I don't turn deaf," Mizuki spoke with mild amusement.

"A-ha, sorry, Mizuki-san," Iruka said with a nervous smile.

--

Naruta sat on the swing that hung from the thick tree in front of the academy, her Konoha forehead protector proudly on her forehead. She looked over at the academy, or rather, the event in front of it. Parents were picking up their graduated child, and happily congratulating them, some even getting presents. A familiar pain blossomed in her chest, especially when some of those parents turned to look at her for a moment, those cold, hating eyes landing on her. She swallowed. Sasuke had had the right idea - graduate, wait till Naruta came out, giving her a silent question. When she had smiled brightly in response, he had given a 'ts' and stalked off home before he had to witness this. The 'ts' of course, had been easily translated by Naruta as a humorous, not meant, 'The Ninja Academy's standards have gone down too much.'

"N-n-nar-ruta-chan," a timid voice spoke. Naruta looked up and to her left and saw Hinata stand there. Her two index fingers were nervously touching each other and wiggling about. "A-ano . . . I-I wanted to c-congratulate y-you."

"Thanks, Hinata-chan! And congratulations on graduating yourself too! Great job!" Naruta returned happily. Hinata flushed brightly, and for a moment looked like a deer caught in the sights of a charging tiger. "Has nobody come to pick you up yet?" Naruta wondered, seeing no one remotely resembling Hinata anywhere nearby. Hinata's flush remained, but it was now there for a very different reason. She looked down at the ground, rather defeated. "Oh, I think your father is here," Naruta announced brightly, the slight pained undertone lost on Hinata.

Hinata's eyes widened, her flush forgotten and turned around, a strange mix of hope and dread in her being. Then she deflated again. A man with the same white eyes as Hinata indeed walked into the playground, but the Hyuuga all looked alike. "No," Hinata said, "Th-that's Hinamo." She put her fingers together again, "S-someone from the clan." She looked up and back at Naruta. Now the blonde would know how much of a failure she was. Her own father wouldn't be bothered to come pick her up. Maybe she shouldn't have come congratulate Naruta after all. "A-ano . . ." Naruta looked down at Hinata, and then back at the similar looking man. Not her father? Naruta knew Hinata's mother had passed away some time ago, but why would her father not pick her up to celebrate this occasion. Hinata was a genin, a ninja! She was now considered an adult by the village. This made no sense to the blonde. If she had a child she'd be here, and on time even if she had to fight her way past all the tailed beasts.

The clan member interrupted whatever either might have tried to say to each other with an authoritative, "Hyuuga Hinata-sama."

Sama? Naruta wondered. If Hinata was some type of princess or high lordless or lady or something, wouldn't it be even more important for her father to be here? Hinata timidly took a step forward, her index fingers still together. She stumbled a moment as her feet were nervously pointing to each other, but she caught herself. "I-I graduated, H-hinamo," Hinata managed weakly.

"As expected, from a Hyuuga. Come," the man said without a hint of emotion. He simply turned around and started walking away, obviously expecting for Hinata to follow. Hinata quickly did, giving Naruta a quick wave goodbye.

Before Naruta could let her mind delve into the disturbing mystery, a voice called her name. "Hey, Naruta-chan."

Naruta turned her head, and said, "Hi, Mizuki-sensei."

"You did very well, Naruta-chan," Mizuki said with a smile.

"Thank you, Mizuki-sensei," the girl replied with a smile.

"How about we go for a walk, hmm? I don't think this is such a happy picture for you, Naruta-chan," Mizuki asked gently with a hint to the parents picking up and celebrating their children's graduating.

"Sure," Naruta answered happily - she preferred Iruka-sensei, but she could always use another someone who didn't hate her guts - or at least something in about the same position. The two walked out the playground around the academy and steadily walked in the direction of Naruta's apartment.

"Did you know, Naruta-chan," Mizuki started friendly, casually walking along, making sure nobody paid any notice to him and his charge, "that there is a special scroll with jutsu that an academy student can learn?"

"Huh?" Naruta asked surprised.

Mizuki nodded, and explained, "It's a test really, with a reward. First you must understand that the teachers gave you some clues, then put them together and it tells you the location, then you must get past the guards and the traps. Then you have until the ninjas sent after you to learn a jutsu from it; then the scroll goes back for another student to try. Most never know it exists."

"Then why are you telling me?" Naruta asked confused.

Mizuki sighed sadly and stopped walking. He turned to Naruta, who had stopped next to him, and said softly, "Well, I have noticed how some of the teachers treat you, Naruta-chan. I'm quite sure only me and Iruka gave the clues when you were in class. The others made sure to wait when you were not present." Mizuki smiled at her, gently touched her nose with his right index finger and said, "I heard your ambition, Naruta-chan, and only the Third and Fourth Hokage ever managed to get so far so fast they learned a jutsu from that scroll." Naruta's eyes were wide, sparkling with possibility. "Since the others didn't drop their hints, and you need at least three to even realize there are hints, and you still have to get past the guards and traps, I find it only fair I give you the location, don't you think?"

"Hai! Hai! I will learn- mphf." Mizuki's hand was across Naruta's mouth.

"Ssh, wouldn't want any of next year's students to overhear, now would we?" Mizuki prompted with a grin, and the girl nodded, Mizuki's hand still over her mouth. The teacher took the hand off.

Softly Naruta said, "I will definitely learn a jutsu and more!"

"That's the spirit, Naruta-chan," Mizuki replied with a bright smile, once again touching her nose.

--

**Several hours later, after sunset**

**Hokage tower, upper vault**

Naruta happily walked in front of the two guards standing in front of the entrance, and looked up at them with her weapon. Sweet eyes looked up at them, as she asked, "I'm looking for old man Hokage?"

The two guards knew better than to snub the demon brat where the Hokage would get to know about, and she seemed rather sweet. The right guard told her, "Well, Naruta-chan, his office is one story below, and I think he already went home."

"A-ano, but I don't know where he lives. And it's reaaally important. Could you take me there, pleaaaase?" Naruta asked pushing the sweetness up several notches.

The guard straightened back up. He really shouldn't, and looked over at his companion. That one shrugged, as if to say 'I'm still here, what can happen if you hurry?' The guard finally nodded at Naruta and said, "Well, okay then, come along."

Naruta and the guard started off toward the right stairs, and slowly started descending. The stairs twisted in a semi-circle, and down below they reached what Naruta knew was a utilitarian closet holding cleaning tools for the cleaners.

Naruta took the sleeve of the guard and yanked. He looked down askance. "Will you take my hand? I'm afraid of the dark," Naruta asked biting her lip in embarrassment and big pained, fearful eyes.

"Ah, sure, Naruta-chan," the guard said, offering his hand, almost wondering why people could possibly mistake this sweet girl for the most notorious prankster Konoha had ever known. Maybe someone was framing her. Naruta tentatively took his hand, and then squeezed. He smiled down at her, and then felt a prick. "Ouch," he said, pulling his hand back instinctively.

Naruta held up her hand showing something black in the middle, with a distinctly less innocent smile on her face. "Like my prank, sir? Normally it's an electric buzzer, but I chose a sleeping potion just for you," Naruta said, blinking 'innocently'. The guard's world warbled, and then went dark as he collapsed unconscious. She quickly caught him, and pushed him into the cleaning closet. After closing the door behind her, she quickly rushed onward to the second set of stairs, this one also twisting upward, it would come up on the left side of the vault.

Half-way up the stairs - as silent as ninja should be - Naruta stopped, performed some seals, and whispered to herself only, "Henge." A moment later with a puff of smoke Naruta seemed to be no more, leaving only the Hokage himself. The third, Sarutobi, wearing white robes and a white trapezoid-like hat, with a red pattern on it, a pipe in his mouth. Moving more slowly, the way the Hokage moved, Naruta continued onward. She reached the top and saw the final guard, she slowly moved forward. The guard noticed her, or rather 'Hokage-sama', and his apprehension over his missing friend took over, even more so when with a puff of smoke 'Hokage-sama' asked gruffly, "Where's your companion?"

"Ah-ah, Hokage-sama, he's gone for a moment, sir, uh . . ." the guard stammered as 'Hokage-sama' steadily walked closer, "it was Naruta-chan, sir, she didn't know where you lived and wanted to speak with you. He's taking her to your house, sir. You must have missed them, Hokage-sama, they went down the other stairs," the guard stammered out.

"Mmh," 'Hokage-sama' returned having reached the guard. As if 'Hokage-sama' owned the place he steadily entered the vault area. The place was a small room with green walls, holding some desks and some scrolls and some writing utensils. To the left were heavy double doors as to the right. Vaults. The left one would hold the Secret Student Scroll with Jutsu. "Guard, come in here, please," 'Hokage-sama' said commanding.

"Ah, Hokage-sama," the guard said, holding the back of his head as he walked in.

"I was thinking, now that I'm here, I might as well teach you a new jutsu," 'Hokage-sama' said slow and deliberate.

The guard's eyes widened in a happy surprise. "Really?" The Hokage himself was going to teach him a jutsu! This was amazing!

"Hmm," 'Hokage-sama' grumbled gravely. "Watch closely," 'Hokage-sama' said and made the seals. "Sexy no Jutsu - Girl Version!"

"Wha?" was all the guard managed before a beautiful, naked, cute, young, redheaded girl with a ponytail stood before him, with curves in all the right places. A few final bits of white smoke still keeping her naughty bits covered rapidly dissipated. The girl winked suggestively, her arms up and chest out.

"Hi," the girl said even more suggestively and seductively.

"Ooh!" the man exclaimed as a fountain of blood spurted from his nose, making him stagger back in a daze.

The girl changed back into Naruta - for some reason she never quite liked just making an older version of herself: the whisker marks, the hair color and hair style she always changed doing the Sexy no Jutsu. A moment later the guard was tied up and gagged, and he was wiggling to get free. Naruta knew she did not have too long - the guard would free himself; an ANBU did not remain tied for long. She opened her pouch and pulled out a long sturdy needle, a senbon, and walked over to the vault. The needle disappeared into the locking mechanism, some wiggling and chakra manipulation later, and the vault doors swung open, revealing the scroll.

Naruta smiled. Green tiled wall, a pedestal with a huge scroll as tall as herself, some lights to illuminate the place - and a myriad of traps, trip wires, chakra detectors, motion detectors, and exploding tags. "Well," Naruta told herself, folding her arms across her chest, "this might actually be a challenge. Never seen anything this heavily trapped. You guys really like to make it tough on us students, don't you?" Naruta looked back and give the tied up ANBU a smile and thumbs up, completely missing the guy's frown and anger.

She moved forward and hopped over the first wire, jumped up all the way to the sealing, in between two more triggers for traps, and with a quick twist jumped onward. Landing against the far wall she gently pushed off and dove down, grabbing the edges of the pedestal. Steady, she let go with her left hand, pushing her feet out for additional balance, making sure not to hit the wires hanging there. With a quick flick from her free hand she pulled a heavy something from her pocket and dropped it on the pedestal. At the same time she pushed off with her remaining hand to the right, grabbing the scroll off of the pedestal at the same time as the weight landed on it, thus keeping the pressure trigger from going off. Her left hand, the one that had placed the weight on the pedestal now grabbed its other edge, she was now holding the scroll with her right. She wobbled for a moment, concentration on her face. With a quick toss, the scroll sailed out of the vault, narrowly missing several triggers, and landed on the floor of the room behind.

Naruta was once more balancing on the edges of the pedestal with both hands, and hopped forward, bringing her feet down into frog-like jumping position. Then further horizontal to miss a chakra trigger-line. Her hands went down again once over a line, her body forming a right angle. Her hands landed on one tile between two tiles that had trigger lines in the grooves - exploding tags no doubt underneath them. She pulled her legs along, completed a flip to put her right leg on the floor just in front of her. Not waiting a moment she twisted her body upward and jumped onward with the same motion. She compacted her body in a somersault, and twisted herself between the triggers she had already passed on the way in. She landed on the floor outside of the vault, and found herself starting to topple back. Her face looked surprised all of a sudden, and she started twisting her arms to find balance - she must have just miscalculated the difference. Her body toppled further, and then just in time she pushed herself to the side, to grab the door frame to hold her up. Righting herself she walked forward to the scroll, a wide-eyes ANBU looking at her.

"Phew, that was close. It actually took some effort," Naruta said once again smiling. She took the scroll by its carrying lash and put it on her back. "I'll be off studying the jutsu, don't hurry getting untied too much," Naruta said as she ran off out of the room. She jumped out of the first room, and continued on across the roofs for a short while, before going down and running along small alleyways so she wouldn't be seen.

--

Naruta sat in front of an old cot, that was half destroyed, somewhere outside of the actual village of Konoha, but within its walls. "Now, let's see what this scroll's got," Naruta said and opened the scroll. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. Ha! Already know that one. Next." Naruta unrolled the scroll further, and read, "Hm, Fuuton: Konohatou and Konohakunai Senpuu no Jutsu1, huh? Prior knowledge and jutsu required: Konohatou no Jutsu and Konohakunai no Jutsu2. Helpful prior knowledge: Fuuton: Konohatou/Konohakunai Dammaku no Jutsu3, Fuuton: Konahtou/Konohakunai Ame no Jutsu4." Naruta grinned, "Thank you, Kakashi-sensei."

--O--

Maito Gai found Hatake Kakashi in a bar. Across from him sat a black-haired beauty with reddish eyes in a red and white wraparound dress, that he recognized as a fellow Jounin from the insignia, but did not know the name of. A recent Jounin graduate no doubt. "Hatake Kakashi! My eternal rival, I have finally found you! And with a beauty no less, perhaps some fires of youth burn in you after all!"

The female jounin had turned her head toward the new arrival and looked shocked. Was the guy's smile really blinking light? The one closed eye, and the thumbs up gesture was annoying her though. More people inside the bar looked affronted at the loud entry, then quickly and wisely turned away, hoping Maito Gai would leave soon.

"Hmm, you said something, Gai?" the silver-haired jounin said, turning his one visible eye coolly toward the newcomer. A mask covered his face from the nose down, and his forehead protector was pulled down to cover his left eye. The jounin was in a standard ninja outfit, blue pants and shirt and a beige-green jounin vest.

"AIIIIII!" Gai exclaimed, much to shock and surprise of the female jounin, more so as Gai grabbed his face and bent backward as if he'd been slammed into the face by someone wielding the legendary strength of Tsunade. Gai bounced back though, and pointing accusingly at Kakashi, he spoke, "It's that modern, hip attitude of yours, that always pisses me off, Hatake!"

"Now, look here, I am not on a date with this guy, I'm asking some advice on how best to go about chaperoning a genin team. I'm getting my first this year," the female Jounin said somewhat incensed.

"Wrong guy to ask, milady, he's never had a genin team," Gai said, grinning another shiny smile at her. "Now me on the other hand, I have my team burning with the fires of youth, and turned into a lean, mean, green fighting machine!"

"Huh?" the female jounin asked a little confused, while cringing at the mental image of three students in the same horrible green spandex as the jounin was wearing. "I read he was given six teams-"

"-and failed all of them in the final test," Maito Gai finished for her with a grin.

The woman turned her gaze back on Kakashi, who sighed almost imperceptibly and said coolly, "I can't help it if all the teams assigned to me are lower than trash. Gai, this is Yuuhi Kurenai by the way."

"Maito Gai," Gai introduced himself, pointing his left thumb at his chest, "it's a pleasure to meet you, Yuuhi Kurenai! May the team that is assigned to you burn with as much youth as mine does!"

"Ah, thanks, I think," Kurenai replied with a dubious impression.

Kakashi sighed, and said, "Sit, Gai, you're making everyone look by remaining standing."

"Ah, eternal rival! I shall accept your invitation," Gai spoke and sat down in a free chair, making a triangle of people at the square table. "You know of Uzumaki Naruta."

It was not a question. Kurenai blinked - who didn't? Kakashi turned his visible eye gently toward his best friend - although he would never be caught admitting that fact. "Hm?" he put out, paying close attention, much closer attention than usual. Another thing he would never admit, is that no matter how idiotic Maito Gai could act, he was a perceptive man, and almost always right. Also, the green-clad taijutsu expert never acted 'normal' to the trained and untrained eyes, but Kakashi knew him well enough to hear a small shift in tone. That tone meant that Maito Gai was deadly serious and about to impart a wisdom beyond his years - another thing Hatake Kakashi would never ever admit to. That tone had come, so Kakashi, despite his casual appearance, was intently aware of what Maito Gai was about to impart.

Maito Gai for his part, was equally aware of the slightly more alert Kakashi. Slightly, for he knew that no matter how unaware Kakashi looked, he was _/always/_ alert and very much aware. "Some time ago I found her training throwing kunai and shuriken, while I was training with my team," Gai spoke, unusually subdued. "I found they were . . . defective."

"Damaged?" Yuuhi Kurenai asked in clarification.

The man with fuzzy eyebrows and a bowl cut simply turned his eyes toward her, and spoke coolly - perhaps even coldly, "Defective." Any ideas about this man being incompetent or otherwise not quite there, vanished like that. However embarrassingly he had acted earlier, or how ridiculous his wardrobe looked, here sat anything but an incompetent man, here sat a very perceptive jounin.

Both Kurenai and Kakashi said nothing as they let the implication soak into them. Maito Gai continued in a low tone, "I decided to help her, train her, to see that her youthful spirit would soar. I would teach her when a shop owner would try an unyouthful sale on her; then I found to my horror that Naruta-chan's reading and math . . . are below standards." Kakashi's eye remained trained on Gai, and betrayed no emotion. Kurenai's gasp answered for both them though. It was even loud enough for some of the other patrons to throw a momentary glance in there direction.

"It's that bad?" Kurenai muttered softly, shocked at the revelation how completely the girl's education was mishandled - if not outright sabotaged.

Gai nodded, letting out a brooding sigh so very unlike him. "So, to make her youth shine like ever before, I started teaching her basic education," Gai explained with his eyes closed in disappointment. "Hah! Anyway, my team and I will leave on a mission that might take as long as a week tomorrow, so, Kakashi, my eternal rival, I thought, who could I ask to continue at least her basic education, and I remembered, Kakashi . . . the Fourth was your teacher, was he not?" Kakashi's lightly raised eyebrow was the answer Gai needed. "And he asked of Konoha to see Naruta as a hero, right?" A light nod from Kakashi followed. "Then, Kakashi, show me that not all of your youthful spirits have burned out, honor your teacher's last will, and teach this girl."

Kakashi didn't need to think about the request at all - in fact, there was a slight sense of guilt that he hadn't known about this himself and helped the girl out much sooner. He gave a nod, and said, "Mmh."

"I will help as well," Kurenai said softly, determined. This was too horrible for words. There was no way she could just stand back.

"Yosh!" exclaimed Gai with another smile that had light reflecting off his teeth, "Youth burns bright today in Konoha, even in my too hip, unyouthful rival Kakashi!"

--

A puff of smoke. "Yo."

The quiet that had reigned in Uzumaki Naruta's apartment ended a moment later. "YAAAAH! Who the hell are you!?" Naruta screamed with shock, her finger pointed at the silver-haired man in a jounin uniform that was reading some red book as he puffed out of nowhere into her apartment.

The man's only visible eye seemed somehow to split in two as it trained on her passed the book, yet somehow, she knew, kept reading it. "Hatake Kakashi, acquaintance of Maito Gai. While he is out on a mission, he has requested I help with your reading. I'm not too early, am I?" Kakashi told her friendly - he would never admit to anyone he'd considered the green-clad jounin a friend either. He took in the visible part of the apartment calmly. It was small, not surprisingly, and reasonably neat. He was standing in a small kitchen with a simple, small, square table in the middle. It had a simple light blue table cloth covering it, and a flower stood in the middle. A refrigerator was standing next to the wooden cabinets and counter containing a sink and cooking plates that made up the actual kitchen.

The girl narrowed her expressive blue eyes at him, and asked, "Come Come Secret Spot. Is that porn?"

Kakashi wondered how eyes could go from so sweet to so terrifying in such a short moment. "Of course not," Kakashi answered her friendly.

"Then you won't mind us using that book for the reading lesson, will you?" Naruta asked him with a sneaky grin.

"Ah . . ."

"I KNEW IT! IT'S PORN! You pervert!" Naruta exclaimed with an accusing finger.

Kakashi blinked, smiled unseen, and put his dirty book away. He leant down to the blonde, and with a huge smile - that was even obvious through the mask, even if the eye didn't betray it - he asked, "Shall we get on with the reading lesson then? What were Maito Gai and you reading?"

Naruta folded her arms across her chest and studied the weirdo pervert for a few moments; then decided it was better than putting reading on hold for a week, or teach herself wrong at something so important. "Fine, but you better not try looking up my skirt," she warned him, and after a moment finished with a dangerous, unmeaning tone, "Kakashi-_/sensei/_. By the way, you're ten minutes late."

"Only ten minutes?" Kakashi replied. It had slipped out before he knew it. Naruta looked back over her shoulder at him with a look even more venomous than before, venomous enough the jounin backed up a step.

--

**Three days later**

". . . _and so the three companions hefted their baggage, and set out to continue their journey_," Naruta finished reading the last words of the chapter. She turned the page, while looking up at Kakashi. He gave a nod to indicate she had made no mistakes. She had gotten better at this, a lot better.

Before she could start reading the next chapter of, she had to admit a fun book to read, Kakashi stopped her with a gesture. He then said, "Naruta-chan, I do not believe continuing to read the book will help with your reading."

"Eh?" Naruta questioned a little disappointed, wanting to know what would happen next. She definitely was going to finish reading it in her own time. Then she realized, "Are you saying the reading training is over?"

"Ah, no," Kakashi answered, and searched for words for just a moment. Then continued, "Its level is too low. We need to push your reading up further if you want to understand technical manuals or need to commit texts rapidly to memory as a Shinobi might have to do. I will tell Kurenai to bring non-fiction texts tomorrow, and I will bring a true technical text the day after."

"Okay," Naruta agreed, not really looking forward to it, already knowing it wasn't going to be half as much fun as reading this action adventure book.

"We still have some time though, how about I teach you a jutsu?" Kakashi offered almost as a side thought.

"YES!" Naruta squealed with excitement, jumping up on her chair. She jumped twice until she realized it made her skirt flap up and down. She stopped and looked directly at the silver-haired jounin, trying to figure out if the pervert had tried to peak. He was inscrutable though.

"Hm, now let's see, what jutsu would be helpful," Kakashi said slowly, tapping his masked chin in thought. "How about a traditional Konoha jutsu?" He nodded in agreement with his own suggestion as he continued, "Hm, it's not often used or taught anymore because it isn't that useful, but still."

"What is it!? What is it!? What is it!?" Naruta demanded impatient.

Kakashi nodded, and said, "The Konohatou no Jutsu and Konohakunai no Jutsu."

"Huh? Knives and Kunai made from leaves? Doesn't seem that useful, you're right," Naruta said in answer.

"Think of it this way," Kakashi said with a smile, "if you can't get proper shuriken and kunai from the shops, you've got this jutsu, hmm?"

"Yes!" Naruta exclaimed with grin.

"Let's go to the roof, because we actually need leaves to work these," Kakashi said, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Naruta growled to her empty apartment and hurried up side, easily jumping climbing to the flat roof of the apartment building. The village hidden in the leaves was literal, and as such trees were everywhere throughout the village - the forest in which it was built practically growing inside it. As such, it was not surprising that some leaves had landed on the roof. "Konohatou no Jutsu," Kakashi said, making several seals and one leaf levitated off the ground. Kakashi took the leaf and held it out to Naruta. The orange-clad girl walked over and tested the leaf. "The jutsu makes a leaf hard and makes its edges razor sharp, like a knife," Kakashi explained. "The standard technique has two usages, either take the leaf and use it as a weapon, or automatically launch the knife at your opponent; but in expert hands it can be modified to do some interesting things with it."

Naruta turned the leaf knife back and forth, and then it slumped back to normal. Kakashi explained, "After a while the leaf returns to normal. The more chakra you put in the jutsu, the longer the leaf stays hard. This is especially useful if you use the launching method. If the knife slumps back to normal after embedding in your opponent, it is much more difficult to remove, as it will most likely tear."

"Making it take longer to heal, right?" Naruta asked paying close attention.

"Hm," Kakashi nodded, and continued, "Especially if one uses rotten leaves. It will almost certainly lead to an infected wound, and if enough wounds are created by such rotten leaf knives, a slow, agonizing death. Obviously, never use rotten leaves on your fellow Konoha ninja in any type of match."

"Understood, Kakashi-sensei," Naruta replied with rather wide eyes, imagining the rotten leaves information with a shudder.

"Now, for the closely related, nearly identical jutsu, Konohakunai no Jutsu," Kakashi said, making the seals immediately. Naruta felt the leaf getting hard again, and change shape. She looked at it lying on her hand, and saw it rolling up. It was now a narrow cone, starting at a point, and expanding shallowly outward. "The difference between the two can be quickly explained; the latter is sturdier and thus has greater piercing abilities. A leaf knife will in most cases be stopped by a bit of armor, the leaf kunai can cut through it. The draw back, is that a kunai will tear less easily when someone tries to remove it, and not do as much, if any, damage if it hits your opponent only shallowly. The kunai needs to hit dead on. Now, let's give it a try, shall we, Naruta? Watch the seals closely, I'll do them slow this time around," Kakashi explained, Naruta nodding as she took in every new piece of information.

--O--

"_Caution,"_ Naruta read from the scroll out loud but softly, to herself, _"this technique requires a lot of chakra. Chakra is what keeps the whirlwind going, and the leaves trapped in it. Let chakra slip, and the leaves will be launched from the wind without control."_ Naruta frowned and looked at the diagram of the whirlwind with the leaves in it; a human-form - the opponent - in the middle and wiggly arrows on the top of the whirlwind, and on its side to indicate leaves being launched away. _"Therefore, this technique should never even be attempted by anyone with low chakra capacity, and it should _never_ be used in the vicinity of civilians_. _ Side note: deliberately losing control of the technique has at times been used successfully against multiple opponents. Only attempt this after you and any allies have found suitable cover."_

Naruta nodded to herself a few times, going over everything in her mind. "Alright, time to give it a whirl!" Naruta grinned at her own pun, and made her first attempt.

--

The old man Third Hokage was out of his robes uniform, not even the hat was on his head. With a pipe in his mouth, he was carefully holding a paint brush, and was ready to apply it to his half-completed painting again, when a hasty knocking on his door alerted him. The door was opened, and the ninja peeking in called out, "Sorry to disturb you, Hokage-sama, but Uzumaki Naruta has stolen the Forbidden Scroll of Seals!"

"Hmm," the Hokage puffed out some smoke from his pipe while he grumbled.

--

Standing on the top of some stairs, behind which was an entrance into the building, the Hokage addressed a rather large group of ninja of different rank and function. Now they would all get the same. With a grumbling voice, he started, "Uzumaki Naruta has stolen the Forbidden Scroll of Seals." The various exclaims that such power would be deadly in the hands of the demon he unfortunately had to ignore. "Find her, get the scroll and her back here quickly."

"Yes, Hokage-sama!" the collection of ninja exclaimed and ran off to look.

The Hokage let out a puff of smoke and turned around the re-enter the building, and asked himself, "Now, Naruta-chan, how did you even know of its existence, hmm? I should keep a look out."

--

Naruta slumped back, breathing hard. The large scroll still on her back. Multiple cuts and abrasions covered her body, where a leaf from a failed whirlwind had struck. She grinned, looking at some leaves slowly fluttering to the ground, all in the same place. A tree behind it covered in now slumped leaves sticking in it at all sides. She laughed! She'd done it! Not one leaf had escaped the whirlwind.

"Naruta!" Iruka-sensei screamed as he landed crouching on the ground in front of her.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei! Dang, I was hoping I had enough time left to learn another," Naruta answered him with a sweet grin.

"Naruta, why did you take that scroll!?" Iruka asked disappointed in the girl.

"Neh?" she asked confused, "To learn jutsu from it and prove myself the greatest ever, why else?"

"Naruta, that scroll is forbidden!" Iruka said heatedly, hoping he could somehow get to the bottom of this and save Naruta from whatever punishment she would be given - and it could be severe, _/very/_ severe.

"Forbidden? Huh?" Naruta said looking from her teacher to the scroll and back again. "But Mizuki-sensei said that any academy student could get it if they figured out the clues - and if they were given them." Somehow that last Naruta added with some bitterness.

Iruka's eyes widened, suddenly moved forward, and tossed Naruta almost violently to the right of him, and turned around in the same movement. Several kunai whizzed passed, and a few slammed into Iruka, one in his leg, the second in his upper chest in his vest, and a third in his left arm. He had tossed himself forward, now backward as he had turned around, to give himself a little extra time to try and counter, but it was already too late, the kunai had hit. The momentum continued to propel him forward though, and he slammed against the wooden wall of the broken-down cottage.

Naruta slammed on the ground, moaning with the impact and working herself back upright.

"Ah, Iruka-san." Iruka looked up from his downed position and saw Mizuki squatting down on a tree branch, fully equipped for a dangerous mission among other things a huge shuriken strapped to his back. "I must thank you for leading me right to Naruta-chan. I almost thought I might miss her."

"What? What is . . .?" Naruta stammered not understanding, looking from Iruka bleeding against the wall of the cottage to the squatting Mizuki.

Iruka was thinking quickly, and decided to make the other teacher talk to give him extra time. "Mizuki! What did you do?" he demanded.

"Me? I didn't do anything," Mizuki answered sweetly. "Quick, Naruta-chan, hand me the scroll."

"Wha?" Naruta asked trying to make sense of the information.

"Naruta! Don't give him that scroll even if you die!" Iruka exclaimed quickly, working to get back up and in a fighting position. "Whatever Mizuki told you is a lie. It's a dangerous scroll with Forbidden Jutsu. He can't get his hands on it!"

"It is not, Naruta-chan, Iruka just doesn't want you to have it," Mizuki said sweetly, smiling all the way. "Do you know why the villagers hate you, Naruta-chan?"

"You wouldn't! Don't tell her, Mizuki!" Iruka yelled angry with frustration.

_'Yosh! Do you know why they treat you like this, Naruta-chan?'_ Naruta remembered Gai's question, and his answer, and she looked up at Mizuki. And she remembered, all those cold eyes from the adults, the same eyes as Mizuki. "Yeah," she said slowly, rising to her feet in a fighting position, making both academy teachers look at her a little surprised. "I'm the Nine-Tails jailor. What of it?"

Iruka was busy trying to figure out who could have told her. Mizuki chuckled, and explained, "Well, Naruta-chan, the Nine-Tails killed Iruka-san's parents. He sees you no different than the villagers do, Naruta-chan. You're the killer of his parents to you. That's why he doesn't want you to have the scroll's power. He wants you pathetic, so he can kill you when he gets the chance. It's probably why he's been sweet to you."

Naruta's eyes widened and turned her head toward Iruka, who yelled out a negative, then a warning. Mizuki had used Naruta's distraction to toss one of his meter-across shuriken directly at her. Naruta turned her head back around, and froze at the sight of the shuriken coming directly at her head, possibly her neck. There was a sudden powerful impact and she found herself fall back to the ground. She opened her eyes back open, and they widened in surprise. Iruka-sensei was over her now, the huge shuriken sticking out his back. Tears flowed from Iruka's eyes. "Naruta-chan, it is true that the Nine-Tails killed my parents," Iruka cried if not wailed out, "but you are not the Nine-Tails. I know that. I'm ashamed to admit that once I thought differently, but I looked at you Naruta-chan, and you could never be the Nine-Tails. I had to grow up without parents as well, Naruta-chan, I always acted like a dumbass to get some attention. I know what kind of pain you must endure, even if it's greater than mine. Do not let Mizuki get that scroll! Run!"

Naruta nodded, scrambled to her feet and ran in the opposite direction, into the woods.

Mizuki landed behind Iruka with some grace, annoyed Iruka's sudden self-sacrificing moment and speech had surprised him enough he had let him continue. He casually took ahold of the shuriken. "You're wasting your breath, Iruka-san," Mizuki said with an evil smile as he casually pulled the shuriken free. Iruka hurked and dropped further to the floor with the pain. "She'll never give up the power she now possesses. Be a good man: stay here and die, while I go retrieve the scroll and kill the demon. The scroll, its power, _/and/_ the adulation of the village for killing the demon - this is turning out better than I planned. Bye, Iruka-san." Then the silver-haired ninja was off after Naruta.

--

Naruta hurried along the trees, rushing onward, jumping from tree to tree. She dropped herself down from the trees and sat down, unslinging the large scroll from her back and putting it in front of her between her legs. She was breathing hard and thinking just as much, tears threatening to leave her eyes. Mizuki obviously didn't give a damn about her, but was Iruka-sensei the same, or not? Was it all an act? Mizuki had fooled her, hadn't he?

Naruta was thinking hard on the past. She had thought some time after Gai-sensei had taken her on as another apprentice she wouldn't feel like this anymore. That there were enough people now that acknowledged her. The pain of the loneliness was still fresh in her memory. The first person who had lighted her existence just a little bit, was, truth be told, the Hokage. She practically thought of him as grandpa, but the old man was too busy with his job to ever spend any serious time with her - even if she did drop in in his office often enough. The second was Hinata-chan, a bonding experience during a kunoichi flower lesson was really all it took, now that she thought back on it. However, the girl couldn't speak up if her life depended on it. Naruta had often explained her silence differently than what it really was - she had thought at first it was the same reason everyone else had for not talking to her. She hadn't figured out the real reason until after Hinata had very slowly, just a little bit, opened up to her sister in arms so the speak.

No, emotionally, it had still been Iruka-sensei that was the real first person to treat her normally, acknowledge her existence really. Granted, at first - like he had confessed - he had been somewhat cold, and then just professional, but bit by bit the teacher had talked with her, given her advice, smiled at her, answered her questions without getting mad at her - unless she did something genuinely worthy of getting mad at, of course - and more importantly bought her the occasional ramen. He was the first.

Sasuke had followed - much later when she'd finally gotten the guts that fateful day to walk down to the lake to join him, and even later than that as the Uchiha boy didn't like acknowledging anyone. Naruta had had to figure out his cold demeanor didn't mean he didn't acknowledge her, it was just his way of being. Gai-sensei followed, along with niisan - Rock Lee - and Tenten, Gai-sensei's female team member.

But still, to her heart, it had been Iruka-sensei that had first given her the feeling of being treated as if she meant something other than an object to be hated. Had he really only acted nice to her to come close enough to kill her - presumably in a way to make it look he didn't do a thing? The pain in her heart was almost unbearable, and unaware of doing it, her right hand let go of the scroll and grabbed her chest above it. She had Gai-sensei and the rest, didn't she? What did it matter if Iruka was a fake?

Her jaw quivered, and she swallowed away a lump, a tear formed at her left eye and she felt it slide down. Then there was a sound behind her, and she carefully peered around the tree. This didn't make any sense. She watched herself soaring through the sky, the scroll on her back, kicking Iruka-sensei away from her. Was she going insane? Before Iruka-sensei landed though, there was a puff of smoke revealing Mizuki. Henge! The other her slammed in a tree and sat down against it.

"How did you know I was not Iruka, Naruta-chan?" Mizuki asked with a sickening smile.

Her other self chuckled and said, "Because I am Iruka." A puff of smoke, and her other self disappeared, revealing Iruka-sensei. Naruta's eyes widened at the scene, her hand still clutching her chest.

"Ah, Iruka-san, impressive, especially considering you're bleeding to death," Mizuki said with a gentle tone that belied his true motives. "Tell me, Iruka-san, why do you continue to try and help the demon-brat? Do you not understand; she's like me, she has the Nine-Tails in her, the village treated her like crap. She'll never give up the power she holds now. She'll use it. She'll probably leave just to return and destroy Konoha finally."

Iruka-sensei's answer followed, a casual, "Yeah." Naruta's eyes tightened closed, her hand clutching the top and skin above her heart tightened at a sudden overwhelming pain. It felt like tumbling down a black hole, one she almost liked to follow into. "The demon would hold on to it." A tiny groan left her throat, two more tears leaving her eyes. Unbeknownst to herself, her slightly enlarged canines started to enlarge with small tiny bursts of growth. Similarly without her knowledge, her blue irises slowly gained an orange tint. It felt like her heart was crumbling to little pieces - she couldn't take this, not one of her precious few, not Iruka-sensei. "But she's not the demon." Naruta's eyes snapped open, the red disappearing, the oppressive pain seemed to disappear like snow for a fire jutsu. More so, when Iruka continued, "She's the number one unpredictable, queen of pranks, Konoha's very own, Uzumaki Naruta."

"Iruka-sensei," she whispered, more tears flowing from her eyes, of happiness this time. Her hand unclutched her heart, and her shoulders sagged in a relaxing relief.

"Heh, so be it," Mizuki spoke in answer, shaking his head a little. "I've made a mistake in letting you live back there, Iruka-san. I won't let you interfere anymore. I'm going to kill you, and then I'll find the brat and take that scroll away from her."

Naruta's eyes widened, and instantly she was on her feet. She turned around and ran passed the tree she'd been sitting against. Seeing Mizuki jump through the air to land a fatal blow on Iruka-sensei, she jumped herself. "Konoha Senpuu!" she yelled as she made the flying helicopter kick that Gai-sensei had taught her. It caught the silver-haired traitor perfectly, slamming three kicks in his torso and head before finally slamming to the ground. Naruta landed and held the scroll to the ground with one hand, grinning, tears still flowing from her eyes and she didn't care.

"Naruta!" Iruka exclaimed surprised, looking at the back of the pigtailed blonde.

Groaning with the pain of the kicks and the less than soft landing on the ground, Mizuki forced himself to look up. "Brat, I will kill you," he said, and forced himself to his feet, and widened his eyes as he saw Naruta making seal after seal.

"No, I will kill you," she muttered, coming up to the last few seals.

"What are you doing!?" Mizuki demanded, and then ran forward, drawing his shuriken. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

"Konohatou Konohakunai Senpuu no Jutsu!" she exclaimed and instantly the wind started up. It circled the small clearing, picking up leaves as it went, leaves from the trees detaching and being pulled along in the swirl.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!?" Mizuki screamed terrified as Naruta's determined eyes were trained on him, and the whirl of leaves rapidly shrank down around him. Then it was over, as leaves hardened by chakra from the whirl cut into him everywhere. "AAAH!!" he screamed out the pain, as leaf after leaf cut into his flesh all around his body, some stopping on his armor, rolled up leaf kunai penetrating them, cutting into his face, upper head and nose and eyes . . . everywhere.

Naruta let the technique go, the whirlwind now devoid of leaves calming down and disappearing. Mizuki still stood, blood pouring down his body from multiple wounds, pooling at his feat. It was a grotesque sight, leaves now hanging limp, were cut into him everywhere. The body sank bonelessly down to its knees, the impact dislodging several outer pieces of flesh and muscle. The head cracking along several lines connected cuts made by the leaves. Then the body toppled over to Naruta's and Iruka's left slightly, and slammed diagonally from their point of view on the ground. More chunks of flesh dislodged, including a cut to pieces eye; indeed the entire head cracked further, bursting forth blood, showing bone, and falling flesh. Mizuki was obviously dead.

Naruta felt her body tremble at the sight. It was horrifying, but what truly horrified her that she had just taken a life, and done it so easily. In fact, when the technique hit, there had been a secret glee at his death, that she could pay back at least one of those cold eyes. She had really just . . . she gulped, completely forgetting this was what the Ninja Academy trained her to do.

"Naruta-chan," Iruka said a little weakly.

Naruta was yanked out of her trance, and she turned around. "I-Iruka-sensei," she said stiffly. He gestured for her to come closer. She did, and he did so again. Finally close enough Iruka gathered into a hug. "I'm proud of you, Naruta-chan," Iruka said with a smile. Naruta could only hear the smile in his voice though, as her chin was resting on his shoulder, her arms desperately wrapped around him. He continued gently, "You did more than good, Naruta-chan. This was your first kill, a rightful one, you have proven why you earned this head protector." Iruka's left hand had uncoiled from the hug, and the nail of its index finger now gently tapped the metal plate holding the leaf sign. It made faint metallic sounds as it was struck gently. "You are a true Konoha ninja now."

Naruta's body jerked with a sob, and she whimpered, "But . . . I could probably have . . . have defeated him . . ."

"Naruta, you cannot waste too much time trying to find a non-fatal solution sometimes, even often - it will be the death of yourself and your teammates," Iruka whispered consolingly as the girl broke down further in his arms, sobbing and crying. "You'll have to trust your instincts and training in battle, even your killer ones."

--

Up in the Hokage tower, the Hokage peered into his crystal ball, puffing contently on his pipe. He nodded with satisfaction as he saw the events between the teachers and pig-tailed blonde play out. He was still slightly amazed the girl had mastered at least one jounin-level forbidden jutsu that would burn through chakra in no time at all, and had done so in just under an hour apparently trying and trying the technique again until she succeeded. Any other genin, and even chuunin would probably be wiped after the first try, and out like a light by the second try - if not dead from losing control over the technique that is.

He left the just graduated girl and her teacher to her private moment, and walked outside his private room, and called an aid. A male in a chuunin uniform almost immediately appeared, and the Third told him, "Recall all shinobi search for Uzumaki Naruta. She has been found, and all is well."

"Yes, Hokage-sama!" the aid answered immediately and was off.

_To Be Continued . . ._

**Author's Notes:**

Translations of the Jutsu:

1. Fuuton: Konohatou / Konohakunai Senpuu no Jutsu: Wind element, Leaf Knife / Leaf Kunai Whirlwind Jutsu

2. Konohatou no Jutsu / Konohakunai no Jutsu: Leaf Knife / Leaf Kunai Jutsu.

3. Fuuton: Konohatou/Konohakunai Dammaku no Jutsu: Wind Element: Leaf Knife / Leaf Kunai Barrage Jutsu.

4. Fuuton: Konahtou/Konohakunai Ame no Jutsu: Leaf Knife / Leaf Kunai Rain Jutsu.


	2. Chapter 2: A Rival Emerges

_**Chapter 2: A Rival Emerges**_

by 3D Master

Naruta slowly woke up and looked around her small and sparse bedroom. The memories of the night before, of Mizuki's attack, of killing him, and then spending the rest of the night with Iruka and talking. They had gone from the forest to the Hokage tower to report in, and then had sat in her apartment and talked more. About her training with Gai, about her abilities . . . and about killing: about possible scenarios if she hadn't done what she'd done, about different scenarios where she might have to kill, and whether or not she should. She remained lying in her bed a little longer, pained.

_"Be cold and ruthless when you need to be when you're facing an opponent. It is not evil stopping someone out to kill you or your team mates. Grieve, feel, love, laugh, care later. Always remain human,"_ Iruka had told her; she'd heard something similar in class once, but it hadn't really registered.

She forced herself to smile and jump out of bed. Standing in only a pair of panties, she stretched into the first light of dawn, letting it warm her face and upper body. She'd dealt with worse pain by seeking humor and laughter, even in the situation that created the pain. She wasn't going to let a kill get her down. It was a good day! The sun was bound to shine, and she'd graduated! She was going to eat breakfast, and then head over to morning training with Gai-sensei and Lee-niisan, and show off her forehead protector to them!

--

**Much later that day**

"Are you certain about this?" the photographer asked a little shocked.

"Yes, take the picture," Naruta answered with a smile.

"Are you really certain?" the photographer asked again.

"Just take the picture already," she told him a little annoyed.

The photographer sighed, and took the picture.

--

The hall somewhere in Hokage Tower was nearly empty. The Hokage was standing and several aids were sitting behind a table, and Naruta sat on a chair with satisfaction. Her legs were stretched out leisurely in front of her, and she sported a light smile. She was imagining everyone's look when they looked at her ID picture. The Hokage looked at the registry file he was holding, which included the picture. He let out a puff of smoke alongside his pipe, and said, "Retake it."

"What!?" Naruta exclaimed in shock, sitting up straight. "Why?"

"This is a registry of all Konoha ninja and any exceptional abilities they have, Naruta," the Hokage said a little annoyed, and turned the registry paper over, showing it to Naruta. The picture had her sexily baring a shoulder pointed straight at the camera, and then give kiss-mouth with a suggestive twinkle in her eyes. "This looks like the first picture in a set for a porn shoot!" the Hokage exclaimed loudly, almost yelling.

"And how would you know that, grandpa!" Naruta exclaimed back just as loud.

"Ah, well . . . uh . . . that is . . ." the Hokage stumbled over his words. He was only a man after all, not a saint. And his wife had been dead for quite a while - truth be told . . . ack. The Hokage cleared his throat and brought himself back under control. "Retake it," he said calmly and sternly.

For a moment the two stared at each other in a battle of wills. Naruta was no match for multiple decades of patience. She jumped from the chair, and made the seal, "Sexy no Jutsu - Girl Version!" The naked, dark brunette girl covered only by dispersing wisps of smoke stood in all her glory. The Hokage's eyes - and all the eyes of the male aids popped like saucers. The one female aid as well, but for completely different reasons. "Oooi, Hokage-sama," the naked girl cooed playfully, trailing one hand through her hair. She moved her hands to 'modestly' cover up as the smoke finally disappeared, and bent forward lightly, showing off the cleavage - the breasts forming it wiggling suggestively. "Not even if I finish the shoot?" She finished her little suggestion with blistering hot wink.

Three geysers of blood erupted from three noses, three males shot back and slammed into the wall, the Hokage one of them. The female remained sitting with a dropped jaw. "You vulgar hussy," she said as the naked girl turned back into Naruta.

"Hm," Naruta told the female haughtily and sat back down with annoyance.

The sliding door to Naruta's left suddenly slid open, and a young boy charged in, screaming, "This is it old man! I will kill you and take the title of Hokage from you!" The boy, in green shorts, yellow shirt, a cape and some weird type of cone-shaped helmet - open at the ears, and a tuft of hair bound through the cone sticking out the top - ran forward yelling, a kunai in his right hand. Naruta mildly looked at him, the Hokage sighed as he worked to stand back up, and other downed men were just trying to get back into their seats. Suddenly the boy stumbled and slammed face first into the ground. He sat up, grabbing his head, and gave yips of pain. "Somebody laid out a trap for me!" he claimed out loud suddenly. He looked around, and pointed at Naruta, "It's you, isn't it!?"

Naruta, her right elbow leaning on the back of her chair, and her face in that hand, looked, at him, going, "Huh? There's no trap, you fell over your own feet, you dumbass."

The kid ran up to her, "Don't lie to me, you put up a trap to trick the great Konohamaru! You will be punished for it."

That was it, Naruta stood up, grabbing the kid by the collar and yanked him to eye-level. "Stop accusing me of stuff that didn't happen, you vermin, or I'll beat you into the ground," Naruta told him angrily, the kid annoying her to no end.

The door opened again, and a jounin with an angular face, black hair under a bandana, and a pair of small, dark, round glasses stepped into view. "Young Master, what . . . ack!" the jounin noticed Naruta holding Konohamaru by his collar, "What do you think you're doing with the grandson of the third!? Put the Young Master down right now!"

"Oh, the grandson of the third, huh?" Naruta said sweetly, while Konohamaru nodded haughtily, knowingly, and folded his hands across his chest - this is where the apologies came. "Too bad for you, I'm the _/next/_ Hokage!" And she slammed her fist on his head - not that hard - and he slammed down on the ground, yelling out in pain and cradling his aching head.

The jounin yelled out in shock,"How can you do that to the Third's grandson! Have you no shame!" The man's cold, cold, hateful eyes were trained on her.

Naruta felt a chill from that look wrapping around her heart. She didn't bother answering, just stalked out of the room. The Hokage silently watched the proceedings.

The jounin watched her go, and then watched Konohamaru stand back up. "Young Master," the jounin started, making a cough as he stood straight, "I, Ebisu, elite trainer, am your best shortcut to Hokage. Do as I say, train hard, and I will make you, Hokage. Mark my words, Konohamaru . . ." Ebisu opened his eyes and looked at Konohamaru again - except there was no Konohamaru. "Eh, what? Young Master?"

The Hokage gave an annoyed grumble, and said, "He already left, I think he went after Naruta."

"AAAH!" Ebisu exclaimed and then sprinted out the room, "Young Master! You must stay away from her! She'll ruin your training!"

The Hokage gave another grumbling sigh.

--

"Stupid Old Man, having to redo the stupid picture," Naruta muttered as she walked along the street, a wooden fence next to her. She stopped, and looked to her left. Fingers clearly visible over a piece of paper, including feet underneath. The paper was made to look like the fence - but the kid - obviously a kid - was holding it the wrong way, the lines were horizontal instead of vertical. Also, no chakra was applied to fake the depth difference. "What the hell are you doing?"

The paper lowered, revealing Konohamaru, and he blustered, "Ah, you saw through my masterful hiding-"

_-Masterful my lovely ass, a three-year-old could do better,-_ Naruta thought irritated to herself.

"- as only my girlfriend can . . ."

Naruta's eyes widened, and her left eye twitched, the rest of Konohamaru's speech lost to her. She slowly turned her head towards him, killer intent growing. Finally Konohamaru froze, noticing something wrong. "Uh, girlfriend?" he asked nervously.

He never even saw the twisted back hand coming. Pain blossomed across his face and he was launched off to his left, to come to a standstill after several painful fumbles. "I'M _/NOT/_ YOUR GIRLFRIEND!" Naruta screeched, rather a little surprised by her own behavior - she'd promised herself she'd never be like that - then again, this was several orders of a magnitude worse than any so-called 'punishable offense' any boy had ever committed. Naruta finished stalking over to the boy who had slowly righted himself, and she yelled at him, "I'm not a piece of cattle for you to claim and brand, you bastard! You want a girlfriend you buy flowers and chocolates proclaim her beauty and politely ask her out on a date! And you keep respecting her as a _/human/_ being even after she deigns to be your girlfriend!"

"Ha, ha, ha, sorry, boss lady-"

The underside of a fist slammed on top his head - and it hurt despite his helmet, dammit! "DO I LOOK LIKE AN OLD HAG TO YOU!!" Naruta screamed - the total disrespect earlier still agitating her. "You dim wit! First treating me like cattle, and now insulting me! I'm twelve years old! I'm a girl." Naruta turned half around, twisting her upper body bak, showing off all of her figure, her side tails fluttering about with the motion cutely, and then told him, "A very cute, young girl!"

"S-sorry, boss-girl, forgive me, I'm still a little kid," Konohamaru said and prostrated himself in front of her. "It's just that, I just wanted to . . . please teach me the jutsu that defeated my grandfather!"

The most pained, pleading, tears-forming, puppy-dog eyes Naruta had every seen - apart from her own in the mirror - looked up to her from the Hokage's grandson. Naruta looked into them, attempted to erect all the walls and emotional fortifications, and found them crumbling like paper. Finally she let out the breath she'd been holding, and slumped, sighing. She was weak and pathetic, she used that look all the time, and now she was falling for it herself. Of course, she knew for certain Konohamaru's eyes were genuine as apposed to the fake version she used with impunity, but still. "Why do you want it anyway?" she asked gently.

Konohamaru looked down, and bit his lip, obviously deciding if he should tell. He looked up to Naruta, and answered hopefully, "I want to be Hokage, because-"

"And you think defeating the Hokage is going to make you the next one!?" Naruta exclaimed in disbelief. Konohamaru looked stricken. "Dumbass. Come on, I'll teach you, you moron. But only if you promise not to try and kill the Old Man ever again. He's your grandfather, isn't he?"

Konohamaru looked down with some shame, nodding.

"I won't teach to those who will slaughter for their selfish reasons, Konohamaru," Naruta said sternly, wagging her right index finger at him.

"Didn't really mean it, mostly just wanted to defeat him," he told her with a nervous smile.

Naruta nodded, turned to where she was headed, and started walking. Konohamaru following behind her. When they reached a shopping district a little further on, Naruta started to lecture, "The basics. In order to do a jutsu, you must know how to mold chakra. Chakra is-"

Konohamaru took over, "Chakra is energy that is mixed from bodily energy, from the cells, and spiritual energy which is gained through experiences. Then by forming the proper hand seals, the jutsu can be activated."

Naruta looked at the boy through lowered eyelids - the kids was reading from a scroll. She slammed a hand palm on his head, and as the boy rubbed the painful spot, she yelled at him, "Don't act all high and mighty and then read from a scroll!"

"Ah," he offered up his embarrassment.

"So can you do that already?" Naruta asked him with curious eyes. The boy nodded, made a seal and let some chakra flow. He looked up half-expectantly, half-hopefully, and Naruta studied him. "Hmm, it seems good enough. Do you know the jutsu to transform yourself?"

The boy laughed embarrassingly, "A little."

Naruta nodded, and motioned the boy to follow, and told him, "Well, you seem to know enough, but there's still one thing your missing. To learn a jutsu properly, you need hard work and guts!" The boy paused as Naruta did, her right index finger pointing upward next to her head. "I'm going to work you to your bone, today, Konohamaru, and then we shall see if you have what it takes. It's time you show me what you can do. Do a Henge!"

"What should I transform into?" Konohamaru asked.

Naruta looked around, so several people walking around or checking out wears at a stall, or shop. Finally she settled on a rather fetching young woman with a brunette ponytail and a blue kimono, with a darker blue sash around her waste talking with a vendor of sowing materials. "Yosh! Transform into her!" Naruta said, pointing at the woman.

"Hai, boss-girl!" Konohamaru exclaimed and made the seals. "Henge!" A big fat, rotund woman, with the same hair and hairdo and clothes of the lovely slim young woman appeared. The mouth was forced into a permanent pout slash kissing lips. It - for it sure wasn't really a woman - looked horrible. "Well, do I look like her?" a muffled sound came from 'Konohamaru's' mouth, not able to fully open the mouth.

"Apart from the clothes and hairdo . . . no," Naruta said with a sigh, she didn't think she ever turned out that bad a transformation, at least she hoped she didn't. Maybe the young woman was secretly a ninja, or had had the training but somehow she had managed to sneak up on the blonde girl, and slammed a powerful fist to the back of her head. "Ah!" Naruta exclaimed in pain as she went to the floor.

The young woman continued to rain punches and kicks on the helpless Naruta, while a scared Konohamaru puffed back to his own self, and looked on scared. "You bitch! Don't insult me like that!" the young woman finished her insults and angry shouts - the punches and kicks stopping as well.

Then the girl turned to Konohamaru, and said sweetly, "Now, Young Master, if you want to transform into me again, make sure it's much slimmer and cuter, okay? Bye." Then the lovely young woman sweetly walked off, leaving a scared stupid Konohamaru and a beaten and bruised Naruta.

Shaking, the young boy muttered, "S-scary."

Naruta grumbled and slowly forced herself to stand, muttering, "I know they hate me, but this is ridiculous. She could have given the runt at least one punch as well. Ugh." She dusted herself off some, and looked at a still scared Konohamaru.

"Let's go, runt, we've got some place to test this out some. Practice on the way!" Naruta told him, and started walking,

--

A few minutes later the two stood in front a shop. "Book store?" Konohamaru read.

Naruta nodded. "It has many study materials, Konohamaru," Naruta told him with a grin and a pointed finger. They walked toward the entrance, and Naruta held Konohamaru back for a moment. She looked around the corner and saw the owner asleep behind the cash register. She beckoned and the boy and girl snuck inside, under guidance of Naruta - straight to the men's magazines containing scantily clad girls, not to mention naked ones.

Naruta pulled one magazine out, and pulled it open to the centerfold showing the naked babe. "Ah," Konohamaru said interested.

"Look closely," Naruta whispered clinically, "notice the curves of the hips, and the size and softness of the breasts. You'll have to recreate that." Konohamaru nodded.

"Naruta!" Naruta and Konohamaru stiffened, and slowly turned around, seeing the owner looking mightily angry and holding a whip over his shoulders. "I told you no browsing in my store!"

A not so soft exit later, and Naruta sporting a black eye and Konohamaru, untouched, were back outside. Naruta grumbled annoyed, and Konohamaru looked nervous. "Oh, well, we got one more place to go, keep practicing," Naruta told him with a smile.

--

"The women's bath!?" Konohamaru looked shocked at the wide entrance and the sign above it proudly proclaiming the building's function.

"Yup," Naruta said with a grin. Konohamaru looked at her in disbelief. Naruta sighed, and said, "It's to see if you can pass for a real girl. The women have got an impressive knack for spotting transformed peeping tom male ninjas. This isn't just the look, Konohamaru, it's time to add in the smell and all the other little things that make women women."

"Huh, okay," Konohamaru muttered nervously. "Henge!" The women he transformed into no longer had a compressed face, but she was still way too fat. But, it might still pass off enough to last a bit.

"All right, let's go, and remember, keep your eyes and nose peeled," Naruta said, pointing to the entrance.

With sudden wide eyes, the fat woman turned to Naruta and asked, "You actually want me to look at naked and near naked women?"

Naruta turned to him, and said tone to lecture an idiot, "Of course, everything you learn in there you will need to perfect the jutsu. So look carefully, don't stare though - that'll give you away. Now let's go." 'Konohamaru' nodded, and the two walked into the baths.

Less than a minute later amongst screeching women a heavily beaten Naruta was flung out of the front entrance, while the 'Young Master' (once again himself) was gently ushered out. "But I _/am/_ a girl!" Naruta screamed in protest before landing face first into the sand.

Konohamaru deflated as he watched a painful and annoyed Naruta slowly turned around to sit, glaring at the entrance and the retreating women behind it. "Sorry," Konohamaru apologized.

Naruta sighed and stood up, looking up at the sky in annoyance. "Say, Naruta-sama, do you think the men are as good at spotting transformed ninjas as the women are?" Konohamaru wondered.

"Yes," Naruta answered without hesitation, "Well, not quite as good, but up there."

Konohamaru's jaw dropped. That would mean Naruta had gone in-; more so others had gone in before. "There are girls who transform and peak on the men?" he asked shocked, Naruta frowned at him. "And not for perfecting a jutsu like my great boss-girl, Naruta-sama, of course, but to really peak."

"Yep," Naruta answered, and the boy's jaw dropped again. Naruta then bent over, and said conspiratorially, "Pray you never meet Mitarashi Anko, Konohamaru, that's one scary and crazy girl. And if you do, if you hear her name, run, run like hell."

"O-okay," Konohamaru nodded, the serious, scared, and pained tone that Naruta was giving him he would never forget.

--

A beaten Naruta stood somewhere in one of Konoha's many wooded areas that often functioned as a training area. Naruta groaned and felt her painful areas, groaning more. She looked at Konohamaru, not a scratch on me. "Ugh, I know they like to beat me, but what's with you not even having a bruise?" Naruta asked no one in particular.

Konohamaru looked down guiltily, and muttered, "It's because I'm the Hokage's grandson, I'm sorry."

Naruta smiled, which made her beaten face look more ugly than cut, and gave a nod. "Nothing to worry about. Okay, then, you should have everything you need to perform the Sexy no Jutsu. Now it's only a matter of practice! Go!"

"Yes, boss-girl! Here I go! Henge!" Konohamaru transformed in a fat girl.

"No! More slender!" Naruta exclaimed grinning.

"Yes, boss-girl! Henge!" Konohamaru said, and transformed into a plain girl.

"No! More cuteness!" Naruta exclaimed, grinning.

"Yes, boss-girl! Henge!"

--

Ebisu stood on the head of one of the Hokages of the great Hokage monument. He peered studiously around. "Where did that brat go? Where did she take my Konohamaru?" he said under his breath, angry. The he thought to himself, _-I am an elite tutor that has taught many Hokage candidates. I will stop any virus from taking root into one of my students.-_

"There!"

And Ebisu was off to what he'd seen, jumping from the monument down to one of Konoha's roofs.

--

Naruta and Konohamaru were sitting on a bench near a vending machine, still in the wooded area. They were taking a break, drinking from cans they had bought from the machine. Naruta turned to Konohamaru next to her. "Say, why do you want to be Hokage anyway?" Naruta asked gently, a light smile on her face.

Konohamaru looked down for a moment, looked back up at Naruta, and then explained sadly, "My name is Konohamaru, I was named after the village. My grandfather the Hokage was the one who named me. But no one ever calls me by my name even though they know it, they only call me Young Master." Naruta looked at him, letting him speak. Konohamaru looked up, and continued, "When they look at me, they only see the Hokage's grandson. They never acknowledge me for who I am. I'm sick of that. That's why . . . That's why I want the Hokage name now."

Naruta smiled gently, and then said, "Moron." Konohamaru looked at her with a jerk of his head, surprised, and shocked. "I already told you, you can't get that name that easily. A runt like you could never get that name."

"What!?" Konohamaru said angrily, getting up and glaring at Naruta.

Naruta looked at him, leveling her sweetest smile at him, "Hokage, Hokage . . . if you want to get that name so much . . . defeat this sweet, little girl first. Or do you think the Hokage could be someone who can't kick a little, genin girl's ass, hm?" Konohamaru looked at her with a dropped jaw, that slowly threatened to turn into a smile.

There was a rustle, the sound of someone landing on a branch, and Ebisu's voice calling, "Found you!" Coldly Ebisu looked as the two got up and turned to face him. _-Demon fox,-_ he thought with disdain, and casually dropped down.

Naruta felt the cold, freezing eyes on her as so often before. She grimaced, she knew why they looked at her like that, and it still hurt so much.

"Young master, let's get back to training," Ebisu said, his right arm in his side, and came to stand still.

"NO!" Konohamaru yelled at him angrily, "I want to defeat grandpa and get the Hokage-name."

Ebisu sighed gently, resetting his round sunglasses, "Young Master, I'm an elite tutor, who has trained many hokage candidates. A Hokage must be well-versed in all aspects of being a ninja. He must know a thousand jutsu and then still . . ."

"Take this!" Konohamaru exclaimed taking a few steps forward. Ebisu's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "Sexy no Jutsu!" With a puff of smoke, Konohamaru transformed, in an older, blisteringly hot, curvy, cute, sexy, and very naked girl.

Ebisu's eyes widened in shock, his right index finger pointing in reflex at the girl. Konohamaru returned to his real self, and he muttered in disappointment, "It didn't work."

"Wh-what a vulgar jutsu!" Ebisu yelled out in angry shock. "How could you think such a low-class jutsu would work on me! I'm a gentleman! I don't react to trash jutsu like that!" He came forward and grabbed a hold of Konohamaru who tried to get away, pulling against the tutor's grip on his cape and getting no father. "Young master! Doing as I say is your best shortcut to becoming Hokage!"

"No, I'll stay with boss-girl!" Konohamaru protested, arms swinging as if trying to swim through the air, attempting to get some extra leverage to break free that way.

"Staying with the likes of her, will only make you turn stupid!" Ebisu countered, in fact only succeeding in keeping the boy in position, not getting him closer to himself.

Naruta watched the exchange, and felt an anger and annoyance at the casual dismissal of her skills mount. This final proclamation was the final straw. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" she exclaimed, making the seals. There was a puff of smoke, and then some one and a half dozen more Naruta's shimmered into existence, their skirt flaps gently flowing about with the sudden movement.

Both Ebisu and Konohamaru stopped their struggling, and turned to the Naruta clones. "A-amazing!" Konohamaru exclaimed with admiration.

Ebisu studied the event over his glasses, and gently pushed them up with disdain. He started walking casually forward, and said, "Hm. I must admit, Kage Bunshin is interesting for a brat like you. But if you think a few shadow clones are going to scare off an elite tutor like me, you are sadly mistaken." Ebisu stopped roughly in the middle of the scattered about clones, and then put himself in a taijutsu stance.

The Naruta clones grinned, and pulled away to form a nice circle. "Henge!" one Naruta exclaimed, and then the same call rang out from the others. Puffs of smoke followed, and all the Narutas turned into a slightly older, and magnificently bodied versions of herself - _/male/_ versions. The naked boys with magnificent, long, spiky hair that framed the face perfectly, would have fan-girls across Konoha running with drooling tongues scraping behind them - for he seemed very much like a very young Fourth Hokage, a super hot Fourth Hokage.

Ebisu's face instantly switched to terror, his body freezing up on him. "Oh, Ebisu, let's consummate our male lusts!" the male Narutas said with sexy male voices, and jumped forward.

"AAAARGGH!" Ebisu screamed, jumping up into a backward somersault to avoid the lunge of the naked boys. He turned around immediately upon landing, and ran off with arms raised in terror, screamed, "AAAAAH!!"

Konohamaru watched shaking in fear as the male, nude Narutas disappeared, and one lone remaining one turned back into her true girl self. "S-s-scary . . . but SO COOL!" Konohamaru screamed, pointing in acknowledgment at Naruta.

"Of course," Naruta said with a sexy smile, making an sexy girly pose, then switching to another, "I'm the great, sexy, and cute Uzumaki Naruta-sama, and I'm unbeatable. I call that one, Harem no Jutsu - Boy Version!"

--

Back in the Hokage tower, a pale and shaking Hokage sat watching the scene in his crystal ball. "Sh-she combined the Kage Bunshin with the Sexy no Jutsu," the Hokage said to himself, shuddering in fear. "A completely ruined reputation, everyone considering you a sick pervert of the worst sort if anyone saw them holding on to you like- like . . ." Sarutobi shuddered again, "And then there's the actual touch of those naked boys - a fate worse than death. If your opponent can't or won't kill you and any witnesses . . . the most terrifying jutsu ever created."

The Hokage swallowed, and thought for a moment. "And the girl version?" the Hokage imagined it, and then smiled with satisfaction. He shook his head and muttered, "And I'd probably fall for that one too."

--

Naruta casually walked over to an amazed Konohamaru. Then the boy obviously became frustrated, and finally balled his fist, and called out, "Damn it! I couldn't even defeat my tutor! And I so wanted a name that everyone would acknowledge! Damn it!"

Naruta sighed, and gave him a light slap on top of his head. "Idiot! What have I been telling you, huh? I only just managed to make genin, I had no parents, no family, I finally get someone to treat me normally, and then I had to work my cute butt off, waking up every morning at five, and starting training at six for hours. And that was just the beginning, all so I could only just graduate the academy!"

Konohamaru was paying attention now. Naruta pointed at him accusingly, and said, "Having the Hokage name means you are the greatest ninja in all of Konoha. This isn't so easily gotten. If you want such an incredible name that everyone acknowledges, you better accept it."

"Accept . . . _'it'_?"

Naruta bent down and looked sweetly in Konohamaru's eyes, making his heart flutter. "There aren't going to be any shortcuts."

Konohamaru looked into her eyes, and remembered her earlier words, _"Hokage, Hokage . . . if you want to get that name so much . . . defeat this sweet, little girl first."_

"Tseh," Konohamaru said, and turned away from Naruta, who straightened up at the gesture. Konohamaru took a few steps forward, and said, "Don't talk to me like you're so special. You're just another girly, no longer boss-girl. From now on, you're nothing but an annoying obstacle in my way." Then he turned around, and smiled brightly at her.

Naruta gave him a giggle, and said, "Well, tomorrow I start being an actual ninja. But one day I'll fight you for that Hokage name, and show you just how annoying I can be. Look forward to it, Konohamaru."

Konohamaru's eyes widened. She had called him Konohamaru, not kid, or runt, or idiot, and more importantly not 'young master', she had acknowledged him by his real name. She smiled at him, and raised her right hand to her shoulder, and let her fingers move cutely down and up in a girly wave. Then she turned around, and putting her hands behind her back linking them together over the ass she'd been boasting about, casually walked away. Konohamaru came out of his shock, straightened in a sharp pose, and saluted her goodbye.

--

**Hokage Tower**

"Iruka," Sarutobi said with a light grumble. He puffed some smoke as he stood behind his desk, reading over the teachers team recommendations. "These are some unorthodox recommendations."

"The Uchiha with the Akamichi and the Yamanaka?" Sarutobi asked him intrigued.

"If Sasuke-san is as much of a genius as everyone expects him to be, he'll function in any team. Yamanaka Ino, I believe, has the personality that won't allow herself to be snowed under, despite having a crush on the Uchiha, at the same time, she seems to thrive at putting herself into service for others," Iruka explained formally, the Hokage studying him.

"Hm," Sarutobi nodded, Iruka was probably right. "What about putting the last with the best to balance out the teams?"

Iruka sighed, and then looked at the Hokage with a smile, "If you mean Uzumaki Naruta, Hokage-same, you are mistaken, as were we all. After last night's . . . debacle, she and I talked some more. I already knew that she was getting taijutsu training from Maito Gai, but that's not the only thing she's been getting. She's learned several Jounin-level techniques, yet she still can't perform the Bunshin no Jutsu." The Hokage looked up more than a little surprised. "Too much chakra, Hokage-sama, she's got a 'fire hose at full blast' as she put it, that she's only slowly learning to control. Jutsu that require very little chakra, she simply can't do yet."

"But she passed the test . . ." the Hokage muttered, letting out another puff of smoke.

Iruka nodded, smiling, "She could fake the Bunshin with the Kage Bunshin only if she did the Kage Bunshin before entering the examination room, and held it before releasing." Sarutobi's eyes widened; he knew Iruka was right, he'd been searching any other method to fake it, and couldn't find any that would have fooled the examiners.

"That's another jounin-level skill," Sarutobi muttered.

Iruka nodded - proudly, the Hokage noted - and said, "Uzumaki Naruta is far from the least accomplished, Hokage-sama, if she isn't number one, she's close."

Sarutobi grumbled and went over the rest of the teams, the now weakest would indeed not be with the number 1, but they were with some of the strongest anyway. Of course, some of them might not get to become ninja at all, they had one more test to get through.


	3. Chapter 3: Another Test! You All Fail?

_**Chapter 3: Another test! You all fail!?**_

by 3D Master

**Next morning**

**Ninja Academy class room**

Grinning widely, Naruta stepped into the class room, with her arms behind her head, her back was straight and she pushed herself forward for all to see. Her trademark orange skirt fluttered a bit as she came to a stop, looking around the room. It was already half full, and was steadily filling with the others. She looked to her right, and saw Hinata sitting next to another student all the way in the back. Naruta shook her head, and walked over.

"Yo, Kenshin, move," Naruta told the boy next to Hinata. The boy dressed in a brown jacket, a white, red-striped shirt, and some grey knee-length pants, turned his head lazily around and gave a silent query. "Move to a different seat, Kenshin, us girls need to stick together," Naruta repeated the demand, smiling with her face close to the boy.

"Ah, okay, Naruta," the boy muttered, blushing lightly at the close proximity of a rather pretty girl. The boy moved up one row, and Naruta dumped herself without ceremony next to Hinata. She didn't often sit next to her - Naruta preferred to be the center of attention, so obviously she usually sat somewhere in the middle or all the way up front. Hinata didn't have the guts to join her, and always remained all the way in the back.

"N-naruta-chan," Hinata said nervously at her idol sitting next to her on a rare occasion, not to mention a tad mortified at the blonde's rather brash, and yet somehow cute handling of the boy.

"Did you say something, Hinata? You were stuttering and you're such a quiet girl," Naruta asked with a sweet smile and sparkling blue eyes.

The white-eyed girl gulped disappointed in so many things, mostly herself and said, "Sorry."

"Better, but next time you should yell my face full for calling you a quiet girl," Naruta returned with a smile and a wink. Hinata's eyes widened in shock, and forced herself to dare to look at Naruta, making her blush lightly.

There was a trampling like a herd of rhino's stampeding and the door to the left and back of them was shoved open violently. Two girls, one in a red dress with pink-hair, the other a pale blonde in a purple top and skirt and wrapped in bandages underneath, were struggling together to pass through the narrow door. One girl would fit through it easily, two at the same time though. Both were forcing themselves through the door, and finally shoved passed the entrance.

"Goal!" both exclaimed at the same time.

Naruta, and Hinata more timidly, turned to face the two new entries. "I win again, Sakura," Ino told the pink-haired girl.

"What are you talking about!? My left foot was a full centimeter earlier!" Sakura returned with an angry growl.

Naruta chuckled and couldn't help but add, "Wow, if it isn't the Siamese idiot twins. Hey, Sakura, do you have such a large forehead because the doctors couldn't separate you two perfectly down the middle?"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY, BLONDIEE!!" Sakura screeched at Naruta.

Simultaneously, Ino's screech joined her rivals, "WHAT DID YOU SAY, WHISKER-TAILS!?"

Naruta smiled brightly, already knowing the outcome. "I'm blonde too, Forehead Girl!" Ino said turned to Sakura.

"I don't care, Ino-pig!" Sakura replied in her own characteristic angry growl.

As the two continued their arguments, Naruta turned to a blushing Hinata who was wiggling her fingers nervously, and whispered with her left hand in front of her mouth, "Far too easy. And just before they can remember me . . ."

There was an annoyed grunt somewhere, and the two paused, then looked forward, Ino with a smile, and Sakura with a light blush. Their eyes had found the source of the grunt - Uchiha Sasuke, number one rookie, genius and dreamboat to girls anywhere.

"Right on cue," Naruta winked at Hinata and turned toward the Uchiha. She saw him peering out from the corner of his eyes toward her and the other girls, and she gave him a cute wave, then blew him a kiss. Instantly the Uchiha's head snapped front and center, and Naruta leant toward a wide-eyed Hinata, and whispered, "He's got a secret crush on me he himself doesn't want to acknowledge you know. Can't stand the thought of me getting man-handled by the barbarians behind us."

The two girls went to join some other girls that gathered around the table the Uchiha was sitting at. "A-ano, Naruta-chan, I'm not sure that's why . . ." Hinata's eyes fell on the crowd of girls, and then looked again to her idol, who was obviously not concerned in the least every other girl always followed the Uchiha around like a bunch of love-sick puppies. Or maybe that was horny groupies. Hinata blushed and quickly banished the thought. She fully turned to Naruta, who was just smiling at her, and she asked, "Wh-why are you . . . uh . . . never worried?"

Naruta giggled, and answered, "Because I know Sasuke, the fan-girls don't. He hates them with a fiery passion, even if he looks smooth and cool on the outside."

It was that moment that Iruka-sensei chose to enter the classroom, and called out, "Everybody sit down!" He waited as the girls grudgingly found some seats, only Sakura and Ino managing to get seats at the same table as Sasuke. Sakura seemed to enjoy rubbing it into Ino's face with gestures that she was the one who snatched the seat right next to the genius. "All right, now that everyone is sitting," Iruka-sensei started, and looked around the room, "let me first congratulate you all on graduating again. You'll start your lives as ninja today. You will be all be in teams of three under a jounin teacher. I will start naming the teams and the teachers now."

Naruta smiled, as she thought about it. Three-man team. Sasuke and . . . Naruta turned to look to her right and found Hinata looking at her with a smile, a sudden blush forming as the orange-clad kunoichi looked at her. Hinata would be a nice addition - but really, Naruta didn't mind all that much; as long as it wasn't Ami1 or Forehead-girl she could live with any team mates.

As Iruka started announcing the teams, there were others going through wishes for team mates as well. Hinata's wish was Naruta of course, blushing when the blonde girl gave her a look, then she looked shyly over to a boy with a puppy on his head, and thought, _-Kiba-kun. I hope I get to be with you and Naruta-chan in a team. That would be . . . uh, but . . . uh . . . could I? I can't even talk to him . . . in a team? Maybe I sh-shouldn't.-_

Sakura looked up, and was imagining magnificent romance scenarios between her and her team mate Uchiha Sasuke. Next to her Ino asked slyly, "Hey, Sakura, who do you think you're going to be teamed with?"

Sakura looked to her right, to the one asking the question, her rival Yamanaka Ino. The pony-tailed blonde looked slyly at her. "I'm not psychic, am I?" Sakura answered her coolly, and then looked straight ahead again. Inside of her, an Inner Sakura happily screamed, _"Fuck psychic! I'll be with Sasuke-kun! Hell yeah!"_ Sakura didn't let the satisfaction at her inner self's outburst show, and instead wondered who else she wanted to be with. Well, as long as it wasn't blondie, or . . . she turned her head to the other blonde, and narrowed her eyes at her. Ino noticed, turned her own head to Sakura and returned the glare.

Next to them, Sasuke thought annoyed to himself, _-Two team mates. They'll only hold me back, how annoying.-_

"Team 6," Iruka announced casually, reading them off of his page, "Fujita Ami." A girl with loose shoulder-length, pale, dark purple hair perked up at her name, and made silent prayers that one of the names following would be Uchiha Sasuke. "Ramunike Kenshin . . ."

"My condolences," Naruta whispered to the boy in front of her that had vacated his spot for her. The boy blinked and turned around confused.

". . . and Okubo Yoshi, under jounin teacher Gekkou Hayate2," Iruka finished his latest team announcement.

"Team 7; Haruno Sakura . . ." Sakura perked up at her name. "Uzumaki Naruta . . ."

The two girls stood up, one pointing to her right and back at the other, the other pointing to her front and left at the one, both speaking at the same time:

"Not Forehead-girl!"

"Not dead-last Blondie!"

Then the two glared at each other.

"Sit down, right now you're _/both/_ acting like dead lasts," Iruka snapped, and the two girls sank down into their seats sulking. Iruka nodded, and said, "Now then, number three in Team 7 is Nara Shikamaru." The lazy boy in question raised his head from his arms mildly as his mind casually processed the information. "And your jounin-teacher is Yuuhi Kurenai."

"Wait, those are all girls. I'm in an all-girl team," Shikamaru commented a little alarmed and out loud. Akamichi Chouji sitting next to him looked a little surprised. Shikamaru just did not raise his voice - it was too troublesome as he said. For him to raise his voice . . .

"I don't think your jounin instructor would appreciate being called a 'girl', Shikamaru," Iruka told him seriously. "I think she'd like to be considered a 'woman' by now." Several chuckles came from the male members in the class.

Shikamaru let out a sigh, and muttered, "This is very, very troublesome." Chouji was even more surprised, this time taking in his friend and checking if it wasn't someone else in a henge, or some type of illusion. Shikamaru did not add even one 'very', it was too troublesome, if he added two of them . . . it was the same as if he, Chouji, or some other boy, would grab his own hair in horror and ran away screaming.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Sakura hissed, the girl sitting one table in front of him, while Ino simply slowly giggled over her rival's fate. Sasuke all the way to the left, characteristically didn't say a thing, just kept his head supported by his hands, looking straight on, annoyed.

Shikamaru let out a sigh, and muttered, "Troublesome." Chouji grinned slightly, his friend was back to his old self already.

--

In the Hokage tower a group of people, the jounins that were the soon to be instructors, looked into the crystal ball in front of the Hokage, which was showing the proceedings. "I do not envy you, Kurenai," one of the jounins spoke, another coughed subdued.

"Oh, on the contrary," Kurenai said, looking at the crystal ball with a smile. She was secretly pleased Naruta was in her team. She knew some of her process through having helped her with reading and math, she would be interesting indeed. And the boy, a momentary evil gleam shifted through her eyes, as she said, "The girls haven't called each other 'bitch', so that's a good sign, and I think the boy will excel in an 'all-girl team'."

"Hm," the Hokage agreed with a nod, "That's what Iruka thought for some reason."

--

Before Sakura could start verbally or physically molesting the shadow master, Iruka continued loud enough to draw anyone's attention, "Team 8; Inuzuka Kiba . . ."

The boy told the dog on his head slowly, "That's us, Akamaru." The dog barked happily.

"Aburame Shino . . ." The sunglasses on the boy in question's head gleamed for a moment as he slightly adjusted his head, then pushed the glasses up with his left index finger.

". . . and Hyuuga Hinata," Iruka-sensei finished.

Hinata sucked in a very quick, but sharp breath. She sat frozen, but managed to force her head to move to look at the loud boy from the dog clan. A blush crept up her face, while doing happy jumps in her head. Naruta was still stewing over being teamed with 'forehead-girl' so she didn't notice.

"Teaching Team 8 will be Sarutobi Asuma," Iruka said, and looked up. Ino, grinned, she had done the math. Sasuke didn't care, and neither did Chouji. "That leaves only Team 10, there's still a Team 9 from last year. Part of Team 10 are Akamichi Chouji, Uchiha Sasuke, and Yamanaka Ino, your instructor is Hatake Kakashi."

"Yes!" Ino hissed, and Sasuke grumbled in annoyance. "Hey, Sakura, no hard feelings, but Sasuke-kun is really already mine."

Sakura looked shocked, that of all people her greatest rival got to team with the Uchiha. Inner Sakura was raging, _'Noo! What past life crime did I do to deserve this!? I should kick her ass! Hell yeah!'_

Out loud the pink-haired kunoichi said, "Don't count on it, Ino-pig. In his team or not, I will win."

"Now, everyone wait here, your instructors will come pick you up in the next fifteen minutes. Good luck, everyone," Iruka said, and after another sad look around the classroom, he left.

One by one the jounins came to pick up their teams, Team 7 being taken out by a magnificent raven-haired beauty with unusual red-irises for eyes. In the end, only Team 10 would be the last to still wait for their instructor, and wait . . . and wait . . . and wait . . . until, finally, eventually, their instructor would come pick them up . . . far too late, as usual as they would find out.

--

The junior members of Team 7 followed their teacher out the ninja academy. Once outside the woman said, "I'm your teacher, and before we do anything else, we're going to eat something together and introduce ourselves properly to each other."

"Ramen!" Naruta exclaimed excitedly.

"Of course not, Dead Last!" Sakura hissed. Unheard by the two of them over their violent outbursts, Shikamaru - his hands in his pocket and lazily walking along - sighed and said his trademarked 'troublesome'. Their teacher noticed though.

"Ramen is great!" Naruta returned stubbornly and loud. As the team walked out onto the street several people's heads turned to look at the commotion, and then narrowed in cold hatred at the blonde. Naruta and Sakura were oblivious, the first too used to it to bother with, and Sakura too into arguing with the blonde girl. Shikamaru noticed it a little, but said nothing.

"No ramen," Kurenai cut through the chatter with a commanding tone that instantly ended the two's chatter. Shikamaru sighed when Sakura sent a smug look to Naruta to the right of her, while Naruta just glared back. Shikamaru to the left of Sakura wondered if he should walk in the middle next time. Nah, it'd be just his luck for the two to go to war anyway, and having to keep them apart and from crushing him in the middle was just too troublesome. "Not today, at least," Kurenai added, and now it was Naruta's turn to return a smug look to the pink-haired Kunoichi.

Shikamaru stole a bored look at the two and then the woman teacher in front of him, and he wondered what the hell he had done to deserve this. He stopped in time when his new teacher did, his two team mates, who spent the time more glaring at each other walking, smacked right into the female jounin.

Kurenai whipped about as the two girls tried to cover up their embarrassment. "Watch where you're going," Kurenai admonished them with a dangerous tone, that had the two make salutes and other gestures of obedience, while stepping back and composing themselves. Kurenai turned around and looked upon their destination, while thinking that Shikamaru and the jounin back in the Hokage tower may have a point after all. "Behold, the best restaurant in Konoha, Imaraku's Fish & Chips," Kurenai said with a smile. Her three genin peered around her at what she had indicated, and looked incredulously at the old rundown place, with an even older and faded sign on the front. Two dingy tables with just as dingy chairs in front of it. The wooden building, had a brown and green theme going . . . once upon a time, no doubt.

"Fish & Chips?" Naruta asked dumbfounded, and very skeptical at the small place. "What the hell are chips anyway, sensei!?" she then exclaimed pointing an accusing finger at their teacher.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered after a sigh, having seen the place.

"Ah-ah, Naruta, Shikamaru-san, I'm sure that the sensei knows her restaurants," Sakura said nervously, not wanting to get on the wrong foot with their sensei. Inside of her though, her inner self raged, _'Knows her restaurants my foot! It's a miracle the place isn't condemned! And yeah, what the hell _/are/_ chips anyway!? Huh! Naruta is _/so/_ right!'_

"Thank you, Sakura," Kurenai said looking at the girl behind her, making Sakura swallow guiltily and look away a bit at her inner self's tantrum even if no one but her heard it. "And Naruta, chips are fried potatoes."

"Fried potatoes?" Naruta asked more than a little skeptically, looking at her sensei with narrowed eyes. Maito Gai was a lunatic, even if he was a loveable one, Hatake Kakashi was no better - not a mention a pervert, Naruta had thought one of the people helping her out at least was reasonably normal. She was going to have to seriously reassess that notion.

"Fish?" Shikamaru added his other doubt, keeping the amount of mouth movements he had to make to a minimum. The girls all turned to him, and he clarified, "There's no sea or deep river to catch fish near Konoha."

"It's imported . . ." Kurenai explained, and added just a tad sheepishly, ". . . which means that there isn't always fish."

"So it's really just chips then?" Sakura asked before she could stop herself, and clamped her hands over her mouth.

"Yeah! What's up with that!? And where does he get the potatoes, huh? They don't grow here either," Naruta exclaimed in disbelief, looking up at Kurenai.

Inner Sakura happily yelled unheard by anyone but Sakura, _'Hell, yeah! Naruta's annoying and loud, but she's got a point!'_

"Actually, they _/do/_," Kurenai answered with a smile, "_/She/_, that is the owner and chef cook, grows them herself. And there's much more to be ordered than fish and chips. There's vegetarian dishes, meat dishes, rice dishes - about the only thing it doesn't have is ramen. Now, enough questioning my authority, let's go inside."

"Uh, then how come it's called Fish & Chips?" Naruta asked as the other two slowly started to follow their jounin teacher, who herself was walking toward the restaurant.

Kurenai turned her head, narrowed her eyes, and told her, "Because it's the only place in Konoha that makes fish and chips. Now move." Naruta quickly complied.

A short while later the four of them were sitting around a small table. The genins looked around the surprisingly okay looking interior in comparison to the exterior. There was a counter behind which was a kitchen, which continued as seen through a doorway to the back of the room. The round tables seemed sturdy, and the wooden wall panels well maintained.

A woman in her mid to late twenties in a chef's uniform stepped up to their table. "Good to see you again, Kurenai-san, you've brought company, I see," the woman took in the three genin one by one, handing each a menu in the process.

"Yes, indeed, Michi-san, this is my genin-team. It was assigned to me today," Kurenai said with a light smile. "We're here for a nice meal and to get to know each other. The one next to me is Haruno Sakura, on the side is Uzumaki Naruta, and across from her is Nara Shikamaru. This is the owner, and chef of this restaurant." The woman smiled.

"So you're Imaraku?" Naruta asked enthusiastically.

"No," the woman answered with a smile, making the genins frown, "I used to be, but then I married a Koshin, so now I'm Koshin Michi."

"Then why's the place still called Imaraku, huh, huh?" Naruta asked with a frown, making Shikamaru sigh, and Sakura look annoyed at her. Kurenai just smiled and watched the interplay.

"Because it's been called that since my great great grandfather founded it," Michi answered with a smile, straightening up with pride. "It's carried the same name while my great grandfather ran it, my grandfather ran it, and my father ran it. We are the family that has been cooking potatoes in many different ways since before recorded history our family legend has it3. So I feel the name should stay the same."

"I _/knew/_ it!" Naruta exclaimed, putting her right fist into her left palm. "The place looked like it was older than dirt. Maybe we should change the name from Hidden Village in the Leaf, to Hidden Village built around the Fish & Chips Restaurant!"

_'Hell yeah!'_ Inner Sakura agreed.

Before any of her team mates, jounin teacher included could say anything, Michi produced a hidden wooden spoon and conked Naruta over the head with it. "Ow!" she exclaimed, grabbing her head and rubbing the painful spot right on top.

Michi put her enraged face directly in Naruta's. For just a moment Naruta imagined it were the cold, hateful eyes, but then realized they were the opposite. The woman's eyes were boiling hot, as she told her loudly, "I always kept an open mind about the prankster of Konoha, brat, but I'm starting to think the others were correct about you after all."

"Ahah, so-sorry!" Naruta stuttered out afraid, pushing back in her seat. Kurenai stifled a laugh, and just smiled amused, while Shikamaru sighed, and Sakura looked with wide eyes at the woman.

"You better be, you got an order?" Koshin Michi requested with narrow eyes.

Naruta's brain rushed to find an order. She really didn't want to tell the woman she hadn't even read the menu yet, let alone made up her mind; she had the distinct feeling a head, namely hers, would roll if she let the woman wait. Of course, Kurenai-sensei had said there was no ramen to be had here, that really left only on option. "F-fish and chips."

The woman straightened up and smiled pleasantly, in an instant all rancor forgotten. Sweetly she said while nodding once, "Now that I can do. One fish and chips coming up. Anything to drink while you wait?"

"Water," Naruta quickly said, not wanting to take her chances despite the woman seemingly being defused.

"Water, it is. Have any of you made up your mind yet?" Koshin Michi asked with an easy, but somewhat mischievous smile - like a cat that just ate a canary.

With Sakura still a little intimidated, and Shikamaru as usual lazy, they hadn't had a chance to open their menus either. Kurenai didn't need to see the menu, "Steak and chips, and orange juice to drink, Michi-san."

"Good choice, Kurenai-san, and the two remaining little ones?" Michi asked, a rather normal smile on her face now.

Shikamaru had been contemplating if opening the menu was worth the trouble, especially with the scary woman standing right there. As the cook complimented sensei's choice, he didn't need to think any longer. "The same please, except a soda to drink," Shikamaru said calmly, and handed the woman the menu. She took it and wrote down the order.

"Me too, Koshin-san, but with juice again," Sakura said a little intimidated, even her inner self was quiet - after agreeing with Naruta it had been as if the woman's anger had touched Inner Sakura as well.

"Very well," the woman nodded, adding a third notch behind the order and a second one behind the juice, then she took the menu. "I will return soon with your drinks, honored guests. And please, call me Michi-san, Koshin-san makes me want to look behind me for my husband." Then the woman was off.

After a moment of silence, where everyone, especially Naruta and Shikamaru were contemplating the woman's behavior, Kurenai started speaking with smile, "Well, then, it's time to get to know each other. I'll go first: I'm Yuuhi Kurenai. I like beautiful clothes and jewelry, I also like to spend time with my girl friends. I dislike people who judge how good I am as a ninja by my gender, not by my abilities." Kurenai paused, letting the dark edge in her voice ebb away, while her genin looked at with wide eyes.

Michi returned, this time holding serving plate and four drinks. "A soda, orange juice, orange juice, and water, there you are," she said and she placed the drinks on the table. She gave a polite bow and then returned to her cooking.

Kurenai took a sip from the juice, and then said, "Where was I? Oh, yes. My dream is to one day have a family and raise my children to be great ninja, and to prove to those types of people I am a great ninja regardless of my gender - and I will start with that by being the best sensei you three could hope for!"

The two girls looked with sparkly eyes at their sensei, while Shikamaru sighed. Undoubtedly the woman expected him along with his team mates to turn into some kind of super ninja, maybe even Hokage candidates with that attitude. Which meant massive amounts of work, which would just be all kinds of troublesome.

"Well, who goes next?" Kurenai asked looking around his group of genin. She had noticed the Nara boy's sigh, but chose to ignore it.

Naruta jumped up, her right arm enthusiastically in the air, "Me! Me! Me! I am Uzumaki Naruta. I love cup ramen, but I like Old Cutie Ichiruka's ramen more, and I like Uchiha Sasuke." Naruta paused for a moment, while Sakura glared at the pigtailed blonde. Naruta continued, "I hate the three minutes I have to wait for ramen to be finished cooking, and Sasuke's general attitude. I have a goal and a dream. The goal is to make Sasuke roll on the ground in a big belly laugh and make him admit it's better to laugh than scowl haughtily all the time, and my dream . . . my dream is to take the Hokage name and surpass all the previous Hokages!" She finished her proclaim by slamming her raised hand back down onto the table. A few of the drinks spilled over the edge of the glass just a little.

All three looked a little surprised at Naruta after her outburst. She smiled a wide grin. Even Kurenai was surprised. Through having helped with her reading she was aware of Naruta's dream to become Hokage, but surpassing all previous ones was something new, and her whole idea about getting the Uchiha kid to loosen up was definitely surprising. Was it wrong to think the pigtailed girl had better chances at becoming Hokage and surpassing all previous ones?

Shikamaru, too lazy to put in the effort to get genuinely surprised, recovered first, and said, "You Hokage . . . troublesome."

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Naruta demanded sharply from Shikamaru, looking at him with a cold, determined look.

Truth be told, now that Shikamaru thought about it, he could see many troublesome things with dead last and Konoha's number one prankster being Hokage, but his mind was still in mode of his teacher's goal of being a great teacher when he made his comment, and as such quickly explained, "J-just that sensei being a great teacher already meant she expected us to be great, with you definitely wanting to be Hokage she'll put in extra effort to help. She'll expect us to keep up, and so there will be lots of troublesome hard work."

"Oh," Naruta replied, then nodded satisfactorily and sat down.

"Don't talk about Sasuke like you own him, Blondie. And Hokage? Don't make me laugh, Dead Last," Sakura told her moodily.

"Say it again, but now to the fist, Forehead Girl!" Naruta told the pink-haired girl angrily, balling her right hand into a fist and holding it up.

Before a fight could actually start, Kurenai cut through it with a sharp tone, saying, "He's right, you know. Lot's of training. And Shikamaru, I'll make sure yours are extra, extra troublesome." With her goal of the girls' attentions being back on her succeeded, Kurenai looked pointedly at Shikamaru and chuckled lightly, but evilly.

Shikamaru shivered, and looked away, while thinking to himself, _-Scary.-_

"Sakura, you're next," Kurenai said with a nod to the pink-haired kunoichi.

Sakura nodded, and started, "My name is Haruna Sakura. I like . . ." Sakura paused, thinking of several things to say, but her mind irrevocably focusing on a certain number one rookie. "Hmm," Sakura only managed a little embarrassed and continued. "My hobbies are . . ." Oh, boy what were her hobbies? Did she really have any? Well, there was always impressing . . . "Ah," she muttered, realizing she was about to say something embarrassing again. So she quickly moved on, "And my dream is . . ." Her dream, the images fluttered through her mind, and really, the only thing she could do was putting her hands in front of her chest, shake her entire body back and forth and go, "IEEE!"

Kurenai looked almost incredulously at the girl. She had pierced her meaning easily, and thanked the gods she was never _/that/_ bad. The girl needed a life and fast, and it was probably her duty now to provide it for her.

Shikamaru was lazily looking at the girl, trying to figure out the girl's words. He considered himself reasonably intelligent, if not more so, but try as he might, 'girl-speak' was still beyond him. Lucky for him, there was another girl there. Naruta happily said, "Hey, Shika, here's a girl-to-boy translation: 'I _/love/_ Uchiha Sasuke, my hobbies are stalking him, obsessing about him, counting the ways he's _/so cool/_ and generally looking like a complete idiot to him. My dreams are to screw him senseless, get knocked up by him, and have lots and lots of his babies! In short, I'm a complete psycho Uchiha Sasuke fangirl.'"

Once again all was quiet. Kurenai looked shocked at the blonde girl - that she had actually said it was mind boggling, but secretly she was struggling with keeping her laughter in - because it was frighteningly accurate. Shikamaru was processing the new information with a blank look, his eyes focused on Sakura. Sakura was frozen in horror. Naruta could _/not/_ have just done that! There was no way! There was a little something called gender loyalty! Even if you hate a girl, you did _/not/_ just betray all of womankind. Just as anger breached the horror and shock she was feeling and was ready to reach for the neck of the sweetly smiling Naruta, a single word pierced the silence.

"Scary," Shikamaru muttered. Now the second girl was as scary as his teacher. It would be just the way his luck was going if the third turned out to be every bit as scary as the first two girls. Why, oh why, did have to be stuck with three girls; especially since he was starting to realize speaking out loud hadn't been in his best of interests.

"Isn't it?" Naruta agreed with the continued innocent smile.

"I'LL KILL YOU BOTH!" Sakura screamed enraged.

"YOU PAY THE REPAIR AND CLEAN UP BILLS!" came from the kitchen, freezing the pink-haired in her rising motion. Kurenai sighed and pushed the embarrassed, and still angry as hell girl back down. The other jounin had been right after all.

"Your turn, Shikamaru," Kurenai said, wanting someone to distract Sakura from her anger.

The boy gave a characteristic sigh, letting his head droop in defeat for a moment, then looked back up, and said, "My name is Nara Shikamaru. I like things that are not troublesome. I dislike things that are troublesome. And my dream is not troublesome."

Two pairs of disbelieving eyes looked at Shikamaru, but he became aware of the third set of dangerous eyes. Those were Kurenai's. Her red irises seemed to glow ominously for a moment as she leant over. She smiled sweetly, and spoke even more sweetly, "Ah, Shikamaru. More specific, or I will have to make training, and life in general, extra extra troublesome for you. And if that doesn't work, there's always telling your mother you're not willing to be a good team mate. Neh, what do you say?"

Shikamaru shivered lightly, feeling fear and horror flow down his spine. _-S-scary,-_ he thought, swallowing fearfully. _-She's even worse than my mother.-_ Kurenai pulled back and waited expectantly. Shikamaru forced his nerves under control, and said, "I am Nara Shikamaru. I like puzzles, Shogi, and looking at the clouds float by. I dislike chores. And my dream is to . . ." He paused for a moment, wondering how the all girl team would take his words - it would undoubtedly be troublesome. Not half as troublesome as what Kurenai-sensei would do, so he finished, ". . . marry a woman that is neither ugly nor beautiful, have a son and a daughter, retire when my daughter has married and my son has graduated the ninja academy, then spend my days reading and playing shogi until I die before my wife and children do."

He'd been right; their reaction - looking at him silently as if disbelieving, or being in shock - was troublesome.

"That's your dream?" Kurenai asked a little dubiously.

"Yes," Shikamaru answered and sighed. "Troublesome."

"Really?" Sakura asked, for once opening her mouth before Naruta did. Shikamaru just sighed.

"But that's, that's . . .!" Naruta said, struggling for the right word. ". . . that's ridiculous."

"Apologize, Naruta," Kurenai's reaction was instant, a tone that brokered no disagreement. Shikamaru and Sakura had heard it from their parents often enough to know it intimately, this was Naruta's first encounter, but it was no less effective. "His dream may be unusual, but that does not mean you get to insult him, especially not since he's your team mate."

"A-ah, sorry, Shikamaru-san," Naruta said her gaze down in shame, her tone soft.

Shikamaru just sighed, but did look surprised at his teacher. He had expected her to side with the blonde girl, and probably the other one's opinion as well. Before they could discuss his dream further though, Kosin Michi returned from the kitchen again with the first two of their orders and placed them of their respective owners with a polite bow. The last two plates followed afer a trip back and forth, and then she told them, "Enjoy your meal."

Before they dug into their food, they placed their hands flat together in front of their chests, and said, "Thank you for this sacrifice."4

--

The four of them stood on training field seven. Kurenai took them all in critically for a moment. From left to right stood Sakura, Naruta and then Shikamaru. "All right, I want you all to tell each other and me, what jutsus you know beyond what they taught at the academy, and any specialities you may have, as well as weaknesses. It is important that we know each other's strengths and weaknesses. The better we know each other, the better our team work will be. Again, I'll go first," Kurenai said, with a critical appraisal of her charges. Her right hand in her side, she said, "I am a jounin, as such I have better than moderate skills in both taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu. I am, however, a genjutsu specialist. There very few things that I do not know about genjutsu, and very few things that I cannot do. The area I am least proficient in, is taijutsu. I suppose you could call it weakness, in comparison to other jounin at least. Shikamaru, you start."

"The academy basics, I'm reasonably proficient at taijutsu, and I know my clan's basic jutsu Kagemane," Shikamaru answered calmly. Kurenai nodded, she had expected no less from a Nara.

"What does that do?" Naruta asked interested, taking her teacher's talk about knowing each other's jutsu to heart.

Shikamaru acknowledged the question with a nod, and answered, "Means I can stretch my shadow and capture people with it, once captured, their body imitates my motions."

"That sounds useful, can you teach me?" Naruta asked brightly.

"No," Kurenai answered calmly, as Shikamaru and Sakura looked at Naruta incredulously. "Even if he were allowed to teach the clan techniques to those outside of the clan, Naruta, you do not have the Nara bloodline limit, and without it, you can't do it."

"Bloodline Limit?" Naruta asked confused.

Sakura sighed, and explained, "Dumb blondie. A bloodline limit is a genetic trait that is passed on from generation to generation." Naruta narrowed her eyes at the insult from the pink-haired girl.

Kurenai nodded, and said, "Sometimes it is an easy to notice physical trait, like the Uchiha's Sharingan, the Hyuuga's Byakugan, or the Inuzuka's highly sensitive nose and protruding canines. Often though, it is not so obvious. Sometimes it means one can mix two or more elemental chakra types together to form a new elemental chakra. This is true for the Nara; without the special chakra only they can mold, you can't manipulate shadows."

"Oh," Naruta replied, filing away the information.

"It's your turn, Naruta," Kurenai-sensei said and nodded at her.

Naruta nodded with a grin, and said, "I can do the academy basics . . ." She floundered off as she realized there was one exception, and decided to be honest, "except the Bunshin . . ."

Interrupting Naruta's speech, both Sakura and Shikamaru pronounced their disbelief and annoyance, "What?" "Huh?" After all, if you can't do the academy basics you shouldn't have graduated, especially if the jutsu Naruta said she couldn't do was the graduation exam.

Undeterred, apart from a short pause, Naruta continued, "I can do the Kage Bunshin, the Konohatou and Konohakunai, the Fuuton: Konohatou and Konohakunai Dammaku no Jutsu, the Fuuton: Konohatou and Konohakunai Ame no Jutsu, and the Fuuton: Konohatou and Konohakunai Senpuu no Jutsu. I'm well above average for my age in Goken taijutsu."

"You lie!" Sakura exclaimed both in anger and desperation. If Naruta could really do what she said she could do, she was better than she herself was, and that just couldn't be true. "The Kage Bunshin is a jounin technique, and I don't even know what the Senpuu is. This is highly advanced stuff, you can't not do the Bunshin yet do the others."

"I can," Naruta told Sakura smugly.

"How did you even graduate?" Shikamaru asked her, his mind working over time to assimilate the information. He was inclined to think Sakura was right.

Naruta turned over to Shikamaru, and said, "Did the Kage Bunshin, but didn't release it, then fake performed the seals for the Bunshin, and released the Kage Bunshin."

"You're lying through your teeth! I've got great chakra control and _/I/_ can't do that!" Sakura accused Naruta.

"Well," Kurenai said, knowing Naruta told the truth, "what Naruta did was jutsu control, not chakra control. They are related, but I know you don't need that high chakra control in order to do the trick Naruta did."

"I don't believe it!" Sakura exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Naruta.

Naruta shrugged, and made the seals, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" A whole slew of smoke puffs and even more clones than that appeared in a quarter circle to the right of the group of ninja. There had to be at least forty. Sakura and Shikamaru's jaws dropped.

Even Kurenai was amazed. She had helped Naruta with reading and arithmetic and thus had never seen Naruta perform the technique, and even if she had heard from Gai and Naruta how many clones the blonde could make, seeing it with her own eyes was still amazing.

One section of the clones started performing some seals, whispering them, "Hare, monkey, ox, rat, horse, dragon." And they exclaimed, "Fuuton: Konohatou Dammaku no Jutsu." Instantly a wind in the forest beyond picked up, and leaves were pulled along it from the ground, and some from the trees itself. The wind carried the leaf knives to the other section of clones, and sliced into them. With an impressive display of puffs of smoke, accompanied by pops and the Naruta clones screaming in pain, all but one of them disappeared from existence.

The remaining lucky clone picked herself up, and looking angrily at other half of the clones, performed seals themselves, "Hare, monkey, ox, horse, horse, dragon." Then they called, "Fuuton: Konohakunai Ame no Jutsu!" Once more the wind picked up, but this time leaves that were curling up into pointy-ended cones whirled up high, where they seemed to float for a moment, and then they dove down sharply along with the wind, impaling the other half of the clones by the leaf kunai from above. Like the first half, the second batch of Naruta clones died an ignominious death. At the end of the jutsu, the one Naruta clone remained, which then with a satisfied look to her creator, dispelled in another puff of smoke.

"Well, Sakura-kun," Naruta started overly sweet, and immensely smug, her hands sassily on her hips, "believe me now?"

Sakura whipped her head angrily at the demon-container. The pigtailed bitch had just talked to her with a male suffix. Naruta was calling her a boy, a square ugly girl; it was the ultimate of insults! "That's it, blondie! I'll kick your ass!"

"And how are you going to do that, Sakura?" Kurenai inserted sharply and with some speed, before Sakura could make good on her threat. Kurenai secretly smiled inside. If she could somehow keep those two from killing each other, and could get Shikamaru to get in the spirit of things, she might have a golden team here. "It's your turn, Sakura," she added sharply again.

That brought Sakura up short. Having the ability to make so many clones and launch so many attacks, she indeed would probably get her ass kicked. It was horrendous to realize, that 'Dead Last' had somehow steamed ahead to become most likely number one on her team. Sakura hated it; she always felt proud of being one of the top rookies, very possibly _/the/_ top female rookie, but that had changed just now. "Ah, uh . . ." Sakura muttered in answer, a little embarrassed at first, but then realized she couldn't not say anything. She had to get something in. "My chakra control is very good, so I may not know any jutsu other than what was taught at the academy, I can do all that very well though. I consider myself pretty tough taijutsu wise, not as strong as boys though . . ."

"How about skill?" Kurenai asked curiously.

"Uh . . . pretty good, I think," Sakura muttered in answer, only getting more embarrassed.

Kurenai smiled an unpleasant smile that had the three genin wonder uncomfortably. "Well, then, you'll get a chance to kick Naruta's ass as you said," Kurenai said, as if she was ready to cackle evilly. "Time for some taijutsu sparring, let me see where you stand relatively speaking. You and Naruta first, Sakura."

Kurenai and Shikamaru moved a little out of the way as Sakura and Naruta squared off. Naruta grinned - she could touch Uchiha Sasuke in a fight; Sakura wouldn't stand a chance. The pink-haired kunoichi for her part looked determined to show she could at least best Naruta in a fight. Naruta surged forward and launched a bone-jarring punch at Sakura's face - literally. The punch landed on Sakura's lower, right, blocking arm, which felt like it was a bell that had been rung. The force of it surprised Sakura and she completely missed the punch to her stomach, making her double over and stagger back as it hit. She worked to get her bearing and balance back, and hated the fact that Naruta allowed her to do that. Apparently the pig-tailed girl in her orange and blue skirt and top didn't think of her as enough of a threat to capitalize on her momentary weakness.

Sakura gritted her teeth, and righted herself. She took two quick steps forward and launched her own punch at Naruta's face, which the blonde avoided with a quick movement. She blocked Naruta's return punch with a raised knee. Naruta twisted on her left foot instantly and executed a perfect reverse roundhouse kick, catching Sakura on her check and sending her staggering off to her left, before dropping to her hands and knees. Sakura was surprised; Naruta was fast, really fast, and strong to. Refusing to give up so easily, she sprang back to feet, but instantly forced on her defensive as Naruta pressed her advantage. The first punch she managed to push a side, the second she blocked - her arm, the other one this time, once again ringing with the impact. Naruta blocked the follow up punch, and ducked low, before landing a palm strike in Sakura's stomach. A moment later a foot followed and Sakura was launched off of her feet, then she slammed butt-first to the ground.

"All right, that's enough," Kurenai said seemingly casually, and it hurt Sakura. Only a few attacks and it was apparently enough to make Kurenai end the match and give Sakura a rest - as if she was weak. "Shikamaru and Naruta, this time," their sensei gestured for Shikamaru to step foot on their makeshift ring. Kurenai then helped up Sakura to get her out of the way.

Shikamaru sighed heavily and stepped forward across from Naruta, his hands remaining in his pockets. He looked bored at the blonde girl across from him in a ready stance, which surprised all three girls. When he didn't chance his stance, Naruta said with a frown, "You might want to get ready."

"I am ready," Shikamaru told calmly.

"Okay, then, don't say I didn't warn you," Naruta said lightly annoyed, and instantly launched a high kick at Shikamaru's face. Not surprisingly, at least not to Kurenai, Shikamaru's fighting style was every bit as lazy as he was. He simply side-stepped and bent his head back, avoiding the foot that might have taken his head of otherwise. Naruta was not to be deterred, and instantly crouched down and twisted around in a leg sweep. Shikamaru jumped, but Naruta was already up and coming at him. Two rapid punches to his face forced to boy to finally raise his hands and block them. Surprisingly, Shikamaru suddenly ducked down and with an uncharacteristic explosive move, slammed his right shoulder and the right side of his head in Naruta's stomach.

Naruta staggered back, groaning a little and forced air back into her lungs. This is not the way people were supposed to fight - how the hell could she anticipate someone slamming his whole body into her stomach? It was not done, and - she had to admit - perfect for the lazy boy that was her team mate; don't do much, but when you do decide to do something make sure you hit and immediately do a lot of damage so you don't have to do much more. Too bad for Shikamaru she was tougher than she looked and wasn't going down so easily.

With a quick motion she steadied herself and shifted back to the offensive. Shikamaru was genuinely a little surprised, not may remained standing after an impact like that, let alone switched back to the offensive so quickly, and this was a girl too. Naruta's punch turned out to be a faint, a method to take a hold of and twist aside his blocking arm - her right palm slammed into his chest, making him groan and stagger back. As he noticed his arm hadn't been let go, he muttered a, "Troublesome." He was right as a moment later he was twisted over her shoulder, and slammed into the ground. Her other arm coming down in a fist that hit his chin. He had already braced himself for the impact though, and grabbed, then held onto her arm. Forcing himself through the pain of the punch, he pushed his legs back up, and wrapped them around her shoulder. He dragged her down smoothly, and a moment later Naruta was on the ground, her right arm trapped by legs and arms. Her arm was being stretched and twisted, and it hurt . . . a lot. She grimaced - she was starting to understand this lazy boy was genuinely lazy, and it would be just like him to defeat his opponents by lying on his ass. She grunted as she tried to extract her arm, but couldn't. Then tried to dislodge the legs with her free arm, also to no avail.

"You are not strong enough, Naruta. This is game over, you should give up," Shikamaru remarked casually, still feeling the stinging where Naruta had hit him, and no mood to have to continue this fight.

Naruta grunted once, and said, "Heh, that's what you think." He, and the two onlookers to the match, watched amazed as Naruta folded her left arm double and undid the stylish band around her upper arm. It fell down into the grass, and it was obvious it had some weight to it. The shin protectors followed with the same weight to them.

"Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered in appreciation and watched Naruta's left hand wiggled and successfully undid the upper and wrist bands around her still captured arm. Shikamaru noticed the removal of the weight instantly - the arm was obviously less well secured now that she didn't have to carry all that weight around.

Naruta, while dramatically removing the weights, apart from the one she couldn't get to yet, had been thinking of ways to get out of her predicament. Gai had not yet gotten to teach her, and she suspected Lee, how to fight someone preferring to grapple - fact was, even though this move itself wasn't all that crippling, if Shikamaru had team mates to back him up she'd be dead by now, and she was acutely aware of that. Suddenly she pushed herself up with her legs, and went into a rapid handstand. With a twist she wrenched her arm free - which shot an additional spasm of pain down her abused arm. She let herself drop down with her good arm, and twisted her body horizontal with the ground, to slam her feet into Shikamaru's torso. The slippery lazy boy, though, was already rolling away.

Getting back to her feet, Naruta quickly removed the final wrist band, and then shook and tossed her previously locked-in arm and hand to get circulation going again. The combatants eyed each other warily - both had surprised each other and were reappraising the competition.

It gave Sakura the chance to reflect on a shocking truth - Naruta had beaten her and done so easily while being handicapped with weights! Dead last! She felt terribly embarrassed, ashamed even, and tried to look away, but realized that would be stupid. She needed to learn as much as she could from this fight, for the reasons that her sensei had given them, and because she needed to be able to do the same things.

Naruta quickly reformulated her game plan. Fighting him close quarters was out of the question; in close he was better than she was. Which means rapid strikes and backing off again had to be the way to do it - or go so fast she steamed past him, but she didn't trust herself on that one. For a moment she saw Shikamaru's brow furrow in what she almost thought was the sentiment, 'Troublesome.' She'd probably be right, it's been the word Shikamaru had used the most.

"Konoha Senpuu!" Naruta exclaimed, the sudden exclaim and even more sudden movement making Shikamaru jerk for just a moment. It meant he didn't have time to duck, instead he had to raise his hands in a block. Her foot slammed into his arms hard and she bounced back. She smiled lightly Shikamaru, who now definitely carried a 'troublesome' scowl. This time it was right too, his arm throbbed where Naruta's foot had collided. Not many more of those, and block or not it was going to cause damage. Sadly, Naruto knew, he wouldn't fall for that again.

Naruta surged forward and delivered a punch that Shikamaru deflected. The right that followed after was blocked, and before Shikamaru could do anything she quickly danced backwards and to her right, starting a circle around the boy. She zipped forward again, this time landing a punch in his gut that got through his guard - she didn't take the chance it was a trap, and as he groaned and recovered, she was already out of his way again.

She quickly moved off to her left, and again moved in for an attack - a high kick, that Shikamaru ducked under. She twisted forward and to her right, throwing a punch at his torso, which Shikamaru deflected with some difficulty. She followed up with a rapid kick to his upper leg, and then backed off. The kick hit, and Shikamaru was forced to stumble back for a moment. He noticed Naruta circling him left and right again, assessing that he was right about this being troublesome. Getting her in another hold was going to be difficult. There really was no other way about it . . .

"I quit," Shikamaru said.

"What!?" Naruta said surprised, her battle stance faltering and looking surprised at Shikamaru. If Shikamaru wasn't the slacker he was, he would have taken advantage of Naruta's surprise by running up and putting her in a fatal hold - he simply stood there bored, putting his hands back in his pockets.

"I cannot defeat you, you are too fast for me; you will simply chip me down until I am defeated, or I get lucky and put you in a finishing hold. We have both shown what we can do, there is no reason to continue this," Shikamaru said as much for his sensei as for Naruta.

"Hmm," Kurenai prompted, thinking about the Nara's words and then nodded. "Fine, for now, Shikamaru, but we're going to have to see the other holds you know as well, even if it isn't in a fight. Please demonstrate them on Naruta gently." Shikamaru shrugged, and Naruta grunted annoyed. Over the next ten minutes Shikamaru demonstrated a variety of his holds and how he could best implement them during a fight.

When the demonstration was over, Kurenai gathered her students in front of her, and appraised them critically for a moment, before saying, "Well, you all have potential. Sakura, you'll have to work hard to catch up to Shikamaru and Naruta though." Sakura let her had hang a bit - it was true, she was obviously behind the others. "Shikamaru, you need to focus at first at getting stronger and faster, and Naruta should focus most on her chakra control. It's rather abysmal."

"I know, already doing that," Naruta said excitedly.

"Yes, I think I can mold you three in an amazing team, that is if you pass the test tomorrow," Kurenai said soberly.

"Test!? What test!?" Naruta exclaimed in shock.

Sakura at the same time exclaimed, "What do you mean, test!?"

Shikamaru simply muttered, unnoticed because of the other loud exclaims, "Troublesome."

"Oh, did I forget to tell you that?" Kurenai said far too sweetly. She looked up, overacting thinking deeply. "I think I have." She turned her head back to her team, and said with an evil glint, "You have to undergo one last test. Fail, and you go back to the academy, or if you choose, quit being a ninja. Of course, should you make it to a second team, and fail the test a second time, you can no longer be a ninja."

"That's not fair!" Naruta exclaimed angrily. "Nobody said anything of another test! I already graduated the academy."

_'Hell, yeah!'_ Inner Sakura screamed in agreement inside the pinkette's head.

"I never said anything about being fair, Naruta," Kurenai smiled sweetly at the pig-tailed blonde.

Naruta promptly crossed her arms across her chest, and with narrowed eyes told her sensei darkly, "Troublesome."

"As I've been saying," Shikamaru said with minimal agreement and some satisfaction.

Kurenai simply shrugged, and said, "Tomorrow morning at nine, be here. I shall administer the test. Now go home."

--

Shikamaru steadily entered into his parents house, hands in his pockets. He found his parents in the kitchen; his mother humming a tune while finishing dinner preparations, and his father sitting at the table waiting, lazily reading a paper.

"Son," his father, Shikaku, who looked remarkably like an older version of Shikamaru himself, greeted. Like his son, he wouldn't say anymore than needed.

"Father," Shikamaru greeted back equally minimally. "Mother," he added.

Yoshino, his mother, had brown hair, worn flat against the head, apart from tail up on the back of her head and the lock of hair over her forehead. She turned around, and greeted enthusiastically, "Shikamaru, welcome back, so how was your first day with your team? You have a good one?"

Shikamaru let out a slightly deeper breath than normal - but not quite a sigh. He sat down, and said with a frown, "My team mates are all girls, even my sensei."

Shikaku merely looked up at his son, while her mother exclaimed with a smile, "Really!?"

As Shikamaru started talking, his mother turned back to the cooking pots, but never forgot to keep an eye and ear on her son's tale. "Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruta and our sensei is Yuuhi Kurenai," Shikamaru started, making his father look up from his paper sharply at Naruta's name. Shikamaru noticed of course, but said nothing. "Sensei is scary, and the Haruno girl is worse. I find this arrangement troublesome."

"Very troublesome," his father agreed.

"Troublesome!? How can you say that!?" his mother exclaimed in disbelief. "Boys and girls on a team often end up together, and you have no male rivals! You should be ecstatic. These are odds nearly impossible to screw up! So you better not, Shikamaru! I expect many grandchildren, and soon!"

Shikamaru looked stricken at his mother, who waved the spatula threatening in his direction - an obvious warning about 'screwing up'. He knew his mother was scary, but she had just gotten scarier - and it wasn't the spatula. "Father," Shikamaru prompted softly, "Would you remind me again why you married her?"

Shikaku took in his wife, who was mumbling to herself as she continued with her cooking, and turned to his son. "She had certain desirable attributes that seemed more troublesome to go without, than to put up with her less desirable attributes," he explained carefully - there had been a time when he had gone into more detail after asking about them by his son, but that was too troublesome right now.

"I heard that, Shikaku!" Yoshino growled, turning around and waving the spatula threateningly again, this time at Shikamaru's father. Shikaku kept a gulp under control - it would be too troublesome and counter productive. Whenever his wife bothered with speaking his name in its entirety instead of her usual shorthand, things were really bad. "You can spend the next week on the couch!" She turned back to the food.

Shikaku let out an annoyed sigh - he really should have gotten up and talked about this in private. But he thought the risk over his wife overhearing would be minimal and that meant he didn't need to get up. "I suppose now, you wish you hadn't?" Shikamaru prompted, softly again, after making sure her mother had turned away from them to the dinner again.

"You may not understand this until you have found your woman, son, but no," Shikaku answered his son, who frowned troubled.

The matriarch of the house turned around, and appraised her husband, obviously having overheard again. Shikamaru had to make sure he had to remember his mother's sensitive hearing from now on. "Alright," she said, deflated, "You can remain in bed."

Shikamaru's mother didn't stay down for long, though, as she thought out loud to herself, "With no male rivals on the team, maybe even a harem, maybe even Kurenai herself . . ." Yoshino nodded, knowing the woman of course, "She's a very good catch and unattached for so long . . . so many grandchildren . . ."

The male Nara's brows furrowed, and the younger leaned over to his father, and asked, "Why is it, that women find being in a harem distasteful and disrespectful, until it's their sons that can have the harem?"

Shikaku looked at his son for a moment, and made sure to duck behind his newspaper, saying very softly, "You really think I'd try to figure out something that troublesome?"

"I suppose not," Shikamaru nodded in agreement, hoping dinner would be ready soon, so he could eat it and leave his scary mother.

--

**Later that night**

Shikaku sat on his bed thoughtfully, his wife on the opposite end getting ready to go to sleep as well. "Maybe I should see about getting Shikamaru on a team without the Uzumaki brat," he suggested softly. Immediately followed by a loud, "Ow!" as something hard hit the back of his head. He was too busy rubbing his aching head, to check what it was. He had a pretty good idea anyway.

"Nara Shikaku!" his wife hissed angrily, "Don't you dare!"

"But, she's . . ." Shikaku started.

"I don't care!" Yoshino told him angrily, "The Hokage himself has endorsed the girl, so she's not going to turn into a raving monster. Plus she's so cute, she'll grow up to be an absolute knock out. Imagine how good our grand kids will look!"

Shikaku figured he better shut up. Never get in between a woman and her perfect family, he knew.

--

**Haruno household**

"So how is your team?"

Sakura looked up a little surprised at her mother's voice. She hadn't even closed the door, the crank of which she was still holding. Her mother had equally pink hair as her own and was looking over her shoulder as she was dusting the small hallway. Before she could answer, her mother frowned, and asked, "What's wrong? You don't like your team?"

"That's not it . . . it's just that . . ." Sakura blurted out, and hesitated. She used her hesitation to take the time and close the door behind her. She took a deep breath, and told her mother dejectedly, "I'm the least capable in my team, mom." She hated to admit it, really hated to. If both her team mates had been boys, she probably didn't mind so much being behind, but one of them was a girl, and not just any girl: Dead Last Uzumaki Naruta. What did it say about her, if Dead Last was better than her?

"Is that all?" her mother asked with a smile.

"Mom!" Sakura wined, with same expression as every other teenager that ever thought, 'Parents, they just don't get it.'

"Listen, Sakura," her mother said sternly, her hands in her side, "you may be least capable now, but that only means you have more goals to cling to and pull yourself up with. You will simply train and get better, surpass your team mates. And if that's not possible, make sure that 'least capable of your team' means 'still better than everybody else', hm?"

Sakura looked with open mouth at her mother, and then asked, "What happened to you?" Then more suspiciously, "Are you somebody transformed in my mother?"

"Haruno Sakura!" her mother snapped, her left arm holding the dust towel in her side, "I will not have you say such ridiculous things in this house."

Sakura cringed - it was definitely still her mother. She explained pitifully, "I've never heard you be nice about this."

"I still don't like you being a ninja," her mother said sternly, and then softened up, "but it's obvious I can't stop you now, with you being an adult. However, if you are going to be a ninja, then you better well be the best ninja that you can be. You should excel, and the better a ninja you are, the bigger the chance you come home alive."

Sakura was about to roll her eyes, she'd heard this argument from both her mother and her father - but he had caved a long time ago and was defending her choice since then - but realized it was again in a complimentary context. "Okay, well . . . uhm . . . I have some reading to do, in my room," she said, and then was off. She could deal with Dead Last, but a not criticizing mom was too weird.

--

**Lake dock**

"Hey, Sasuke, how's it hanging?" Naruta greeted with a smile as she reached the end of the docks where she found her friend sitting, looking over the small lake. She was holding a few books close to her chest and placed them on the dock before sitting down next to Sasuke. She'd had some advice from Gai-sensei a while ago and she wouldn't waste it even for a moment. The advice had been really simple; Konoha had a library. There was special section only for ninja, and a separate section in there for chuunin and up. Another separate, much more guarded, building housing books only for jounin - and of course one very special scroll that she had found out about without Gai's help. In these ninja-only library, there were books on jutsu, chakra, chakra control, different chakra's and the like, from simple to advanced - and now that she had a forehead protector as Gai had instructed her, she was allowed entrance. There was, of course, no way anyone could rewrite public books just to screw her over, so it was information she could trust - not to mention Gai-sensei couldn't teach her everything. There was only so much time in a day, after all. So, her more than others, had to be self-taught, and she should use the library at the earliest opportunity.

Sasuke shivered, looked at the ever-smiling Naruta, and told her, "That sounds wrong coming from a girl."

"Huh, why?" Naruta asked him confused.

The number one rookie scrutinized her for a moment, trying to figure out whether she was pulling his chain - again - or if she genuinely didn't know. He came to the conclusion she really didn't know. "Because, well . . . it's about, you know . . . the crotch area," Sasuke stammered out a little embarrassed.

Naruta's face was crunched in a frown for a moment, and then enlightenment dawned on her. "Oh!" she exclaimed, then smirked, "So _/that's/_ what it's about! I never could figure out what 'it' was supposed to be and what way it 'hung' had to do with having a good day." Naruta grinned, thinking it over - kinda liking the way boys thought that they'd ask that in a greeting. You never heard a girl asking how 'they' were hanging. "So, how _/is/_ it hanging?"

Sasuke gave a suffering grumble.

"You should really try some new underwear then, Sasuke," Naruta told him sagely.

"Naruta!" Sasuke growled at her. "Make any references to my 'it' again, and you'll get the biggest asskicking you've ever had, you got that?"

"Okay, okay," Naruta backed off a little, and then asked, "Does your team have to go through some test as well, to really become ninja?"

"Yes. That stupid, lazy bastard that is our jounin-sensei even forbade us to eat anything until tomorrow," Sasuke answered with a grumble. He still couldn't imagine how the silver-haired freak was allowed to teach anyone.

"Huh, Kurenai-sensei didn't tell us that, I guess we don't get the exact same test," Naruta pondered that bit of information.

"So how's the pink fan-girl working out so far?" Sasuke asked, hiding a smirk behind his high collar.

Naruta looked at him, her face darkening a little, and then said, "She's worse than I thought. If you'd heard her introduction to the team, you'd have slit your throat in horror, I imagine. 'I like . . . hm . . . My hobbies are . . . ooh . . . and my dreams are . . . IEE!' She sounded like a fucking psycho."

Sasuke nodded, not surprised, having gotten used to Naruta's potty mouth whenever she got frustrated. This girl was nothing like the prim and proper girls that populated the rest of Konoha - it was one reason why he tolerated her presence.

"And how's the blonde version holding up?" Naruta asked him with an evil grin.

And there was the reason he often had to struggle with tolerating the blue-eyed girl. She was far too good at annoying the hell out of him, reminding him of . . . certain unmentionable things. "No better . . . well, seeing as I didn't slit her throat, maybe just a little better," Sasuke answered Naruta, pondering to himself lightly humorously.

Naruta laughed, and said, "Did Uchiha Sasuke just made a joke? Did I set the great Uchiha Sasuke on the pranking path?"

"I did no such thing!" Sasuke denied quickly, "I was just reflecting on your statement."

"Me thinks thou dost protest too much, Sasuke," Naruta said and before he could protest she got up, and gathered her books. "I still gotta eat, and do some reading, so good luck tomorrow, although I don't think you'll need any, right?"

"Hn," Sasuke sneered, hating that he wasn't given the opportunity to dispute Naruta's claim. "Keep it for yourself, you _/will/_ be needing it."

"Maybe," Naruta said, and was off.

--

**The next day**

The three of them were facing their sensei on training ground seven. Kurenai looked them over for a bit, and then said, "Good, you're all on time. Now then, I will explain the test. In a moment, I will go stand on top of that small elevation in the terrain." Kurenai pointed behind her, where a small hill, some one and half meters high lay in a double half-moon pattern. "The first two of you who can dislodge me from it, become ninja. The third fails and goes back to the academy."

"What!? But that's not fair!" Naruta exclaimed instantly.

Shikamaru sighed.

Sakura looked stricken, especially remembering yesterday and how she didn't have anything but the academy basics. Inner Sakura screamed in agreement with Naruta, _'Fuck yeah!'_

Kurenai casually turned her head toward Naruta, smiled gently, and said, "If I said I was going to be fair, or give you the impression I was going to be, I humbly apologize." Kurenai jumped back, and landed on the top of the elevation, and said, "Oh, if you don't succeed before noon, you lose and go back to the academy. And if you don't want to fail, intend to kill me, because nothing less will make you succeed. Now begin."

The three genin looked shocked for a moment, Naruta's explosive personality overcoming it first. "You're going down!" she yelled, charging forward. Sakura and Shikamaru watched perplexed. Half-way to Kurenai, who watched passively. Naruta made a middle-index cross seal, that had Kurenai actually raise her eyebrows. That was no hand seal she had ever known existed. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruta exclaimed and a moment later the small hill was surrounded by Naruta's clones.

_-Curiouser and curiouser, not to mention impressive; a single hand seal she made up to replace two, I wonder if she even realizes she did it,-_ Kurenai thought, while saying out loud, "Ever heard of stealth, Naruta? This doesn't exactly make for a way to catch me off guard."

Sakura decided that she was going to hide, and wait for Kurenai-sense to drop her guard before attacking - she was going to need every advantage she could get. Before she could take more than a step, Shikamaru's surprisingly strong hand grabbed her shoulder, and as she looked at him, he said, "Trust me, this won't take long."

"You're in a clearing, and I can't make like a chameleon," all the Narutas spoke as one, and charged, some jumping up to reach Kurenai at head-height, others dove for her feet, most going for the torso. There was a sudden large puff of smoke, and the real Naruta was launched from it back toward Sakura and Shikamaru - as the smoke cleared all the clones were gone. Naruta's eyes were wide, never even having seen Kurenai move.

Sakura and Shikamaru watched the event as well, and like Naruta Sakura looked surprised. Kurenai hadn't even moved! Shikamaru sighed, and muttered, "Genjutsu. She might not even be on that hill. Troublesome."

At the same time Naruta had landed hard on the floor in between the two, and skidded back a bit further. Then she smiled, and three voices, three of Naruta's voices called out, "Fuuton: Konohakunai Dammaku no Jutsu." Three of her clones could be seen emerging from the tree line at the three remaining sides of Kurenai - the wind picked up, and from three sides leaf kunai hurtled at the jounin kunoichi . . . who then shimmered and the leaf kunai's harmlessly passed through her.

"What the . . .!?" Naruta said in shock.

"Genjutsu," Sakura nodded in agreement with Shikamaru, and went to perform the technique to release herself from it, muttering, "Kai." She had her eyes closed and held up the rat seal, than opened her eyes again. Nothing had changed - either she hadn't been able to break it, or Kurenai-sensei had already dispelled the genjutsu on her own. By the time she was done, three kunai from their sensei had ended the lives of the three clones.

"I'M NOT GIVING UP!" Naruta yelled, and made her own special seal, but before she could perform the jutsu, Shikamaru grabbed her shoulder like he'd done Sakura earlier.

"We can't win on our own," Shikamaru muttered soberly. "She's a jounin, and in the prime of her adulthood. We're just genin, fresh out of the academy. Only teamwork will get us anywhere."

Naruta looked perplexed at Shikamaru. Sakura voiced what the blonde was thinking, "But only the first two of us get to be ninja."

Shikamaru nodded, and told them, "You and Naruta. I'll go back to the academy." Naruta and Sakura looked surprised at him. "You've already failed the academy test a few times, right, Naruta? You can't afford to fail this one too. And I think Sakura will benefit from a kunoichi teacher. Me, I can wait." Not to mention, Shikamaru figured, he wouldn't be stuck in an all girl team. This might just be his lucky break . . . nah, the world was too troublesome for a 'lucky break'. His mind starting to piece the real purpose of this 'test' together, and he hoped he was wrong. "I have a plan."

After some whispering, Sakura darted off into the woods to their left, while Shikamaru did the same to their right. Naruta remained standing where she was for a few moments, then summoned up another horde of clones, and they all lifted her right finger in the air, and yelled, "All right, now it begins!" Naruta and her clones then pointed her finger at an amused Kurenai, and they chorused, "Kurenai-sensei take down, round two!" The clones and Naruta produced a kunai, and charged.

Much like before, Naruta attacked Kurenai from all sides, but more carefully. Also much like before, she never landed a hit. Kurenai almost lazily avoided multiple strikes and sent Clones flying, and Naruta could swear there were times when her kunai or body parts moved through the Jounin.

Off in bushes on either side, a volley of kunai were launched by two concealed genin. As planned, the pathways were free of clones. At the same time, Shikamaru already performed his clan's signature jutsu, and a shadow slowly creeped up and around the hill and up it, using the shadows from clones and the kunai to ever creep forward, winding its way that and there. The clones being used as a shadow relay stopped moving, and so Kurenai was being attacked at only one side by Naruta - facing away from creeping shadow. The last little distance, Shikamaru's shadow suddenly thrust forward, and wrapped themselves around Kurenai's feet.

As Kurenai looked at her unresponsive feet, she found them suddenly moving forward of their own accord, and she smirked. Shikamaru stepped out of the bushes, and said, "Kagemane successful."

That was Sakura's cue, and she rushed from her hiding place, and then dove forward. Shikamaru jumped, as the plan indicated, freeing Kurenai-sensei from the jutsu, but not before making her jump into the air herself. In the air, there was no way to remain standing. Sakura slammed into Kurenai's stomach, launching both kunoichi off of the hill. "Got ya!" Sakura grinned with satisfaction.

Surprised she felt her teacher's body, and with it her own, suddenly flip backward in the air, landing on her hands and flipping onward to land on her feet - no longer on the elevation. Sakura was stunned - Kurenai had back flipped with her attached, she was amazingly strong. More importantly, the plan had succeeded - although it would no doubt no longer work, they'd have to come up with a new plan.

"Got ya!" Naruta exclaimed enthusiastically as her clones dispersed with audible pops and puffs of smoke.

Sakura let go and looked up, starting to smile at having passed the test, which faltered the moment she looked into a pair of angry eyes. **"-What makes you think you are allowed to work together, hm?-"** Kurenai sensei all but growled.

Now that one threw Shikamaru for a loop. He couldn't be bothered to get worked up, despite the dangerous tone, and even the sense of . . . well, something that bordered on an intent to kill coming from Kurenai-sensei. Of course, he couldn't keep the foreboding feeling out of his stomach either. And did her red eyes glow ominously again? Obviously Sakura was more effected by it, she was practically shaking like a leaf. "How else can we move a jounin?" he asked, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah, how else! I had clone after clone, and didn't even touch you!?" Naruta added her two cents worth.

Kurenai focused her terrifying gaze a moment on Naruta, and then focused it on Shikamaru. _"/Nara Shikamaru, you came up with this, didn't you?/"_ Kurenai said, with a very dark and nasty voice. It was almost like a god talked to you from on high - this time Shikamaru definitely did swallow his anxiety; he didn't move his hands from his pockets though. He nodded.

"You _/fail/_!" Kurenai exclaimed angrily, "For thinking you can outsmart me, you're going back to the academy!" Sakura remained frozen, and even Shikamaru was a little perturbed, even if it was what he'd wanted.

Naruta charged around the jounin, standing behind Sakura, and in front of Shikamaru. What had happened to the nice woman that had helped her with her reading and math? It's almost like this wasn't really Kurenai. She suspected henge for a moment, and kept her eyes and ears out, just in case she was right. While deciding that, she exclaimed, "You can't do that, Kurenai-sensei! He was just trying . . ."

**"-I don't care,-"** Kurenai heavily interrupted, "And if you don't quit questioning me, I'll not only fail you _/all/_, I'll make sure none of you will _/ever/_ be ninja."

Sakura took an involuntary step back. Shikamaru raised his eyebrows, wondering if Kurenai could really do that, apart from killing them or causing un-repairable injuries to their bodies which would probably land her in jail. Naruta voiced his opinion rather loudly, "You can't do that! And if you try, I'll tell grandpa Hokage how impossible your test is! He'll never let you get away with it!"

"Is that so?" Kurenai asked dangerously, letting her gaze go from Shikamaru, to Naruta, to Sakura.

Sakura swallowed, she was about ready to plead forgiveness under those eyes. "Yeah!" Naruta yelled back.

The pink-haired girl hated that Naruta's loud, annoying confidence was what gave her the courage to return, "I wouldn't want an evil woman like you as a sensei anyway."

Kurenai's gaze remained on Sakura for a just a moment longer, and then suddenly the oppressive atmosphere disappeared, and Kurenai happily exclaimed, "Then you all PASS!"

Sakura and Naruta looked stunned, while Shikamaru muttered, "Figures. I just knew it."

"But, but, but . . .!" Naruta said loudly a moment later, while Sakura just looked at the suddenly nice again Kurenai-sensei.

"This was not about your skills, team, this was about your teamwork, about your ability and willingness to work together, and put your lives on the line for each other - but more than that, it's to see if you will stand together against all adversity. To trust each other above anyone else, including me, for next time you see me, it might not be me at all," Kurenai told them with a large grin. "I knew you could pass the test. Let's go have lunch, and then we go training. From tomorrow on though, we'll train in the mornings, in the afternoons we do missions."

"YES!" Naruta exclaimed excitedly.

_'Hell, yeah!'_ Inner-Sakura screamed while Sakura just smiled.

Shikamaru just kept his hands in his pockets.

--

**OMAKE:**

Uchiha Sasuke walked down a side street, secure in the knowledge no fangirl had ever found him here. That security went out the window the moment the terror inducing cries of "Sasuke-kun!" reached his ears.

There, round the corner, a horde of the hell beasts emerged, and behind him too, he was trapped. Not surprisingly, Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino were up front. "Sasuke-kun! Try my choice! I'm sure it'll be comfortable!"

Similar cries emerged from all of them. It was then, frozen in terror, that Sasuke realized that all the fangirls were holding some type of garment in their hands, waving it at him excitedly. They were holding up underwear.

Underwear!

And some of that 'underwear', looked decidedly _/not/_ comfortable. Those seemed more suitable for male strippers to parade around in.

It was the Uchiha thus forgiven when he only managed, "Wh-what!?"

"The underwear challenge!" the fangirls yelled happily and one of them handed over a paper.

Somehow Sasuke managed to take the pampflet and read it.

'I, Uchiha Sasuke, issue an underwear challenge. Lately my chosen underwear has caused 'it' not to hang comfortable. As a result I itch and am irritable. To the fangirl who can bring me the most comfortable underwear, has earned herself a date, and with it the possibility for more. Meet me at . . .'

Sasuke's eyes managed to get this place and time in the corner of his eyes, but his eye twitching and mounting anger made him lower the paper to consciously read it. Sasuke's head snapped up and his right, looking up the roof. Yes, there the only blond who could have done this was lying, giggling softly, which quickly degenerated in full on laughter. The prank could be seen as cruel toward Sasuke, but it simply had been too good, and the anticipation for the look on Sasuke's face too great to resist.

**"-Naruta!! I will kill you for this!-"** the Uchiha prodigy screamed, jumping up onto the roof, the fangirls that were also ninja trained, in hot pursuit - the others remained behind disappointed.

Naruta was already jumping over tot he next roof, calling back, "Come on, Sasuke! Where's that growing sense of humor of yours!? You got to admit it was a magnificent prank!"

"So is this one! Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

_To Be Continued . . ._

_**Author's notes:**_

Well, that's chapter 3. I hope everyone liked it. I'll be focusing on my other fics a bit, so the next chapter to this one will take some time. Now for the notes in the text:

1. Ami; if you watch the first episodes, you'll notice a dark purple-haired kunoichi amongst Sasuke's fangirls. Ami in the flashbacks has brighter purple hair; however hair often darkens during the onset of puberty. So the way I see it, that dark purple-haired kunoichi is Ami. More on her team below.

2. Gekkou Hayate? I hear you wonder. Yes, Gekkou Hayate. I can't explain further without spoiling the next chapter, so bear with me, he'll get an explanation in the next chapter(s).

3. Anyone who read the later chapters will now that one of the Uchiha hideouts is inside a ruined modern city. My idea on this, is that Naruto, and thus Naruta, is a future after a massive disaster that wiped out our civilization, emphasized by the massive crossing of old and new. In such, "before recorded history" would be before this disaster, and the Imaraku family has roots in England, a very long time ago.

4. "Itadakimasu", a thank you to the gods, and mother nature for the sacrifice of life force, and life, so one may eat and live. After this, I'll simply be using "Itadakimasu", but I felt the need to write the translation at least once.


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